Breach
by FireTrooper113
Summary: Henrietta's faint conditioning results in her remembering the day her family was butchered. Refusing to condition her but running out of options, Jose gives her a choice.
1. Terrore di notte

Gunslinger Girl is property of Yu Aida, not me.

The following events in this fanfic take place in the Animeverse, after Cristiano's disappearance.

* * *

><p>Ch. 1<p>

Terrore di notte

Jose lay in his bed, unable to get any sleep. He looked at the clock on his desk hoping that it was a reasonable time for him to get up, sadly it was only 2:13 A.M. With an annoyed sigh he rolled over and tried thinking of something, anything that could put him to sleep. He went over the last raid against the Five Republics Faction he and Henrietta did a week ago, how she was able to fend off Padania reinforcements all by herself while he destroyed a weapons cache that was due to be distributed amongst numerous terrorist cells in Italy. Though the higher ups preferred that the weapons be secured for their own ends, the unexpected extra trouble left the fratello no choice but to make sure they couldn't have their toys back.

Then his thoughts traveled to Henrietta herself, specifically how well she was doing her job. He noticed that whenever the two of them got split up, or were out in any other situation where plans had to change, she was getting better at adapting. Sure she'd get confused when Jose wasn't there to tell her what to do, but she was starting to make calls when necessary. This wasn't what the Social Welfare Agency intended, cyborgs were supposed to be completely obedient to their handlers, but Henrietta's recent success spoke for itself.

Jose didn't know if this was good or bad though.

Sure, a flexible assassin could get a lot done, but if he let her loose too much he was afraid she'd get a little too use to it. He remembered when Henrietta cleared out an entire terrorist safe house against his orders, failing the mission when there was nobody left alive to interrogate. If that happened again he'd be pressured to condition her to be more obedient, further shortening her life span.

Then there was the fact that Jose still wasn't used to seeing little Henrietta gun down people without remorse, he'd put on a face and praise her but the discomfort was still prevalent. Since he didn't condition her much she grew fond of him on her own, and would do anything for him. Jose couldn't tell which was more disturbing; killing because she was brainwashed or killing because she genuinely wanted to please him.

True, Jose had no love for Padania after what they did to his family, but a little girl slaughtering them in his stead made him want to vomit. Especially sense her devotion to him was more from Henrietta herself rather than just conditioning. The handler rolled back around and sighed, he just made himself more restless.

Suddenly a loud knock on his door startled him, followed by a young lady's voice.

"Jose? Sir?" She called, obviously panicked. "It's Triela, please open the door!"

Jose climbed out of bed, thought it would be more accurate to say he scrambled out of bed due to the urgency in his visitor's voice, and opened the door. Waiting for him was a very upset looking tanned skinned girl barley in her teens, her half open and blue iris decorated eyes suggested she wasn't fully awake, and her strained breathing and hunched posture indicated she sprinted quite a distance.

"Triela, what's wrong?" Jose asked, taking note that she looked ready to cry.

"It's Henrietta!" Triela replied, still catching her breath. "She woke up screaming, she won't stop crying, and I don't know what to….." She trailed off as her breathing turned in to hyperventilating.

"Calm down!" Jose ordered as he grabbed her shoulders. "Take deep breaths." Triela did as she was told, though what was happening to Henrietta still bothered her immensely. Once her breathing returned to normal, Jose patted her on the shoulder.

"Okay, now let's head back to the dorms." He said.

* * *

><p>Jose and Triela were on their way to the dorms, sadly they were a bit far from where he slept. As they walked, Jose thought about how upset Triela looked and began to worry; she never freaked out that much unless Hilshire was around. Whatever was happening to Henrietta must be that bad.<p>

"Hey Triela?" Jose asked. "Why didn't you go to Hilshire? He's your handler." Triela bit her lip in response.

"I wanted to." She replied. "But since its Henrietta that's in trouble, I thought you were the best person to help her." Jose was impressed by the cyborg's level of understanding, sometimes conditioning made cyborgs dependent on their handlers to a dangerous fault, Triela however was still able to recognize that Hilshire couldn't fix everything. Since Triela was the oldest cyborg, the others looked to her for advice they were too shy to ask from their handlers for whatever reason, so she kept note of their many needs and habits.

"You made the right call." Jose reassured her, making her smile. The smile quickly faded when they suddenly heard a scream from down the hall, followed by hysterical crying.

"Henrietta!" Jose exclaimed. He'd recognize her voice anywhere.

"Sounds like she's got worse since she woke up!" Triela pointed out as they picked up the pace. They turned a corner and saw three doors open, shadows could be seen moving around in one of the rooms.

"Henrietta it's me!" A little girl's voice could be heard from inside the room, barely audible over Henrietta's sobbing. "Please, just tell us what's wrong!"

"Angelica?" Jose wondered out loud.

"She must have woken up after I left." Triela concluded. "Rico and Claes were the only ones awake before." She was interrupted by a shriek and a loud crash, making her and Jose full on sprint. Triela easily outran him with her cybernetic enhancements. Once inside they were met with an alarming scene; Henrietta sat on the top bunk crying and violently shaking with her hands covering her eyes, Rico stood on the lower bunk as she attempted to calm her down in vain, and Angelica lay motionless on the floor with Claes trying to shake her awake.

"What happened here!?" Jose demanded to know from the cyborgs. Claes jumped a bit and looked at him with wide open eyes.

"Angelica tried to talk to Henrietta." She explained, shouting over Henrietta's crying. "But she flipped out and just shoved her off the bunk, I think her arm is broken!" Immediately, Jose's attention turned to Rico, who was about to try and hold Henrietta's hand.

"Rico! Get down from there!" He ordered. Rico turned to face him, but due to her conditioning she took the order without a fuss, and climbed down from the bunk.

"Now help Claes get Angelica to the infirmary."

"Yes sir!" Rico replied as she rushed over to Angelica. Jose turned to look at Triela.

"Triela, go wake Dr. Ziliani and tell him he's got a patient!" He ordered.

"Yes sir!" Triela replied as she ran off to complete her task, she was soon followed by Rico and Claes carrying an unconscious Angelica.

Alone with Henrietta, Jose walked up to her bunk and placed a hand on her shoulder, cautiously as she could easily snap his arm like a twig if provoked. Watching her cry and tremble, it was hard to believe this little girl killed scores of terrorists, regardless it still broke Jose's heart to see her so distraught.

"Henrietta?" He addressed her quietly. "It's me, Jose." The brunette cyborg hesitantly lowered her hands and opened her eyes, blinking in response to her own tears. Her eyes darted around before landing on Jose, making her jump a little.

"Jose?" She inquired through her sobs. Once he was sure Henrietta recognized him, Jose wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close, prompting her to curl up in his grasp and grab his shirt as she continued crying. It was a little awkward for Jose to comfort his little charge while leaning on the bunk bed, but he was willing to endure it for her. Eventually her sobbing ceased, however a few sharp gasps and hiccups still made it out.

"Now, do you want to tell me what's wrong?" Jose asked. Henrietta tensed up and looked up at her handler with puffy eyes.

"I….I had a nightmare." She said, interrupted by a sniff.

"What happened?" He asked with hesitation, the fact that she remembered having a dream was a bad sign. Still, if he wanted to help her then he had to know. Henrietta opened her mouth to speak but stopped, then curled up more and shook her head.

"It's okay." Jose said with a soft smile. "You can tell me anything." The cyborg looked down for a few seconds, and with a sigh she looked back up at him.

"You and I were in a nice house." She explained, her voice slowly becoming shaky. "We were having a party, I don't know what we were celebrating but….just having you there was nice." Henrietta leaned against Jose with a small smile, letting his warmth calm her some as she anticipated the scary part of her tale.

"There were other people there but I didn't recognize them, they all brought gifts but I was just happy having them around for some reason. We played games and had cake, we made quite a mess." The cyborg continued explaining. Jose couldn't help but feel a little warm on the inside as she recalled her dream in colorful detail; the games she played, the cake she ate, there was even an amusing little bit where Jose attempted to play an accordion with less than ear pleasing results.

"For some reason my hair was grown out, you said I looked pretty." She continued. After hearing that part, Jose's smile faded; it sounded like what she looked like before becoming a cyborg. Henrietta's smile followed his as her story took a sad turn.

"Then…these tall men broke in, five of them." She explained, her voice cracked a bit. "They grabbed everyone and forced them on their knees, one of them held me and made me look at them. Their leader had an axe, he started hacking everyone to pieces!" Her grip on Jose's shirt tightened. "I've seen plenty of people get killed, most of them by me, but for some reason seeing these people die made me scream. I looked for my P-90 but it wasn't around, and I didn't have my cybernetic enhancements!"

This was sounding all too familiar to Jose, there were a few differences from what he was thinking about, the most glaring one being his presence, but he was pretty sure he knew where it was going.

"Then you tried to stop them." Henrietta explained, her tears returned and she started hiccuping through her sentences. "But they shoved you down and….chopped off your head, your dead eyes stared at me! Then they took off my clothes, chopped off two of my limbs, and….did things to my private parts. It hurt so much and I couldn't move! I screamed and begged but they wouldn't stop!"

No longer composed enough to keep talking, Henrietta buried her face in Jose's chest as she starting wailing again. Jose's grasp around her tightened, after hearing that tale he was just as scared as she was. If what he thought was going on turned out to be true, then he didn't know if he could help her without conditioning her this time. On the other hand, if he did condition her then everything he did for her up until now would be pointless; he did not want the time he spent with her to go to waste.

"It's…it's just a dream Henrietta." Jose assured his charge, hiding his anxiety. "You're okay, I'm here for you." Slightly comforted by his words, Henrietta's crying began to die down. Her grip on his shirt vanished and she let herself relax against him, her night terrors were gradually swept away by the affection he gave her.

Jose however was still scared.

* * *

><p>Should you stumble upon any grammatical errors whilst you read this, I encourage you to inform me. Otherwise, hope you enjoy the rest of this little tale.<p> 


	2. Preoccupazione e affetto

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Ch. 2

Preoccupazione e affetto

Henrietta stared down at the floor and slouched a bit in her chair, lamenting how little sleep she got last night. Eventually she mustered enough strength to look at the man sitting across from her.

"Now Henrietta, do you remember the second time Jose took you to Sicily?" He asked, sounding friendly without being obnoxious or condescending.

"Of course Dr. Bianchi." She said with a shy smile. "Rico and Jean were there too, we played on the beach."

"Very good Henrietta." Bianchi replied with a smile. "How about the meteor shower?" Henrietta closed her eyes as she fondly remembered that night.

"Rico, Triela, Claes, and I all went to the training grounds to watch it; Jose said it would have been difficult to see the meteor shower from the compound because of the light pollution from Rome. We all sang Beethoven's 9th as we watched." Her smile faded and her eyes opened half way. "Angelica was in the infirmary though, so she couldn't go. But at least Marco was with her!"

"Yes he was." The doctor agreed as he nodded. "Due in no small part to your words, if I recall correctly." Henrietta's smiled returned as she recalled the talk she had with Marco, at first she thought her pleas fell on deaf ears, but Marco ended up visiting Angelica during the meteor shower. Dr. Bianchi pulled out a pen and notebook as he shifted in his seat.

"Now since that's out of the way, on to why you're here." He said, making the cyborg's smile vanish. "Jose tells me you had a really scary dream last night." Henrietta's gaze drifted downward and she remained silent for a few seconds, the nightmare still fresh in her delicate mind. Eventually she nodded.

"Care to tell me what happened in it?" Bianchi asked. Henrietta tensed up, her head remained lowered but her gaze met his again.

"Didn't Jose already tell you?" The cyborg asked timidly.

"He did, but I'd like to hear it from you." The doctor answered. Henrietta's gaze returned to the floor, after a few seconds of silence her eyes narrowed and she hugged herself, slightly trembling.

"I don't want to…." She whimpered quietly. Dr. Bianchi's smile left him, pushing her wasn't going to solve anything.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He reassured her. "However, I still need to ask you a few questions about it." The little cyborg stopped trembling and let her hands rest in her lap, obviously wanting to leave. "Let's start with the people at the party, who were they?"

"I don't know." Henrietta replied, fidgeting with her hands. "They were very nice to me, it was as if they knew me for a very long time. I think…." She paused and looked at the door behind her, remembering that Jose was waiting right outside. Then she turned back to Dr. Bianchi and lowered her voice.

"I think I loved them like I do Jose." She whispered. "I don't know why though, I've never met them."

"I see." The doctor replied as he took notes. "Now what about the tall men who broke in, do you know them?" Henrietta's eyes widened as horrific images flashed in her mind; an axe, her own severed arm twitching across the room, immeasurable agony, screaming and begging, and complete hopelessness. She started shaking and whimpering as her eyes grew moist.

"Doctor, I want to go!" Henrietta whined desperately. "I want to see Jose!" Bianchi quickly pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and rushed over to his patient, kneeling in front of her.

"Hey, it's okay." He said softly as he wiped her tears away with the handkerchief. With a sniff, Henrietta looked back at the doctor.

"I've had dreams before." She explained as she attempted to calm down. "Why do I remember this one so clearly? Why does it bother me so much?" Bianchi already knew the answer, but telling her now would be a disaster.

"Well it is a pretty gruesome dream, anyone would be disturbed by it." He answered.

"But I'm used to seeing people die, what makes this so scary?" Henrietta demanded to know.

"There are lots of scary things in the world, Henrietta." Bianchi explained. "But more often than not it's what we invent in our minds that scare us the most, it dates back to when we hid in caves hoping predators wouldn't find us at night. When faced with an unknown, we scare ourselves."

Still not fully understanding, Henrietta gave up; it was probably the best answer she could hope for.

"Okay." She replied, finally calmed down.

"Good." The doctor said with a smile. "Now would you go get Jose please? I'd like to speak with him."

"Yes sir."

* * *

><p>Jose leaned against the wall outside Dr. Bianchi's office, too restless to take one of the seats nearby. He could have really gone for a smoke, considering the situation, but he quit for Henrietta. Speaking of whom, the brunette cyborg finally exited the office, looking a little dejected.<p>

"How'd it go?" Jose asked. Henrietta looked up at him with a frown.

"Okay I guess, but it still scares me." She answered timidly, "He wants to talk with you now."

"Alright then." He replied with a sigh. "It's almost lunch now so go and get something to eat, we have training this afternoon." The cyborg looked down the hall and started fidgeting with her hands again, then she looked back at her handler.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I got scared, I wanted to see you." Henrietta explained with a slightly shaky voice. The desperation in her voice was gut wrenching to Jose, but he managed to put on a smile for her. He knelt down so he was at eye level with his little charge.

"You're awake now, it can't hurt you." Jose reassured her. "Once you get your lunch, go find Rico and the others; I'm sure talking with them will make you feel better. I promise we'll talk later, okay?" Henrietta looked down for a few seconds, briefly mulling over his words, then she looked back at him with a weak smile.

"Okay." The cyborg answered quietly. Jose gave her an affectionate pat on the head and stood up before letting her make her way down the hallway, she paused briefly to look back him, but then continued on her way. Left alone, Jose let out a long sigh before entering Bianchi's office; afraid of what the doctor had to say. Once inside, he was greeted by the sight of Bianchi himself looking at his notebook.

"So, did she answer all your questions correctly?" Jose asked.

"Indeed she did. Her memory is as sharp as a tack, comparatively," The doctor replied with a sigh. "I honestly don't know why you have me ask her those every time she sees me; with how little you've conditioned her, she's got quite a long time to go before she starts deteriorating."

"Never hurts to be sure, Doctor." The handler said.

"If you say so." Bianchi relented. "However, I am concerned about this nightmare of hers; it sounds awfully familiar."

"I thought so." Jose agreed with a lump in his throat. Before Henrietta was a cyborg, she had a loving family and a normal life. But one day this family was attacked during her birthday party, one by one each family member was hacked to pieces with an axe right in front of her, then she was mutilated and sexually assaulted, losing an arm and a leg in the process. She was taken to the hospital and treated, but had become suicidal, eventually she was turned over to the Social Welfare Agency, brainwashed, and made in to a cybernetic assassin as part of a government anti-terrorism unit.

"How does she remember it though?" Jose asked. "She had her memory wiped during her conditioning!"

"The conditioning only suppresses their memories, it doesn't actually erase them," Dr. Bianchi explained. "Perhaps since you don't condition her much, her initial memory wipe is starting to wear off."

"Great." Jose growled. It looked like his desire to show her a life outside of killing bad guys was starting to backfire.

"Fortunately, is seems as though Henrietta still doesn't remember everything; she doesn't recognize her family." Bianchi pointed out.

"What am I doing in her dream though?" Jose asked.

"That could be anything; security blanket, skewed association, I can't say at this point." The doctor answered as he put away his notebook. "What are you going to do?" Jose looked down, only one solution came to mind and he didn't want to use it, there had to be another way.

"For now, I'm going to keep making sure she thinks of it as a bad dream and nothing more." The handler explained with noticeable anxiety. "But if this doesn't go away…." He trailed off, not knowing what to say. Dr. Bianchi sat at his desk and clasped his hands together.

"You've taken care of her needs so far." He said. "I'm sure you'll think of something, but if she does remember and gets out of hand, I recommend you consider increasing her conditioning." Jose clenched his fists; he just had to bring that up.

"I…I don't want it to come to that." He murmured.

"All I said was consider it, ultimately it's your call." Bianchi reiterated. Jose nodded and turned to leave, as he opened the door Dr. Bianchi stopped him.

"You know if this doesn't go well, Jean won't let you hear the end of it." He said.

"I know." Jose replied before shutting the door behind him.

* * *

><p>Henrietta carried her tray as she wandered through the cafeteria, struggling to keep her eyes open. As she looked around she noticed Rico sitting across from Triela and Claes at one of the tables, Rico noticed her and beckoned her over with one of her big plucky smiles. Henrietta walked over as she returned Rico's smile with a small one of her own, and took a seat next to her.<p>

"Hi Henrietta!" Rico greeted enthusiastically. "Do you feel better after last night?"

"I do, thank you." She answered tiredly, wanting to eat.

"Are you sure?" asked Triela, who sitting across from her. "You look kind of beat."

"I'm just tired, I didn't get much sleep." Henrietta replied. Her eyes widened as she remembered something. "Wait, is Angelica okay?"

"The doctors were able to fix her arm." Claes answered after taking a bite of her lunch. "But she fainted again, so she's being kept in the infirmary until they evaluate her memory." She noticed Henrietta's gaze lower, making her sigh. "It's not your fault she fainted, Henrietta, I did say they repaired her arm."

"Even then, you didn't mean to break her arm." Rico added. "You were upset."

"I bet Marco told Director Lorenzo what happened though." Henrietta replied sadly. "So Jose is going to get in trouble."

"Hey, it turned out alright in the end." Triela chimed in. "But if there's anything to worry about, it's your nightmare. What happened in it to make you freak out like that?" Henrietta tensed up again, wishing that people would stop asking about it.

"I don't want to talk about it." She murmured.

"Oh, sorry." Triela replied. There was an awkward silence after that, everyone tried focusing on their meals in order to suppress it. Wanting the weirdness to end, Henrietta raised her head and broke the silence.

"Um, Triela?" She inquired, making Triela look at her. Since her mouth was full, she could only reply with a muffled "hm?"

"Thank you for getting Jose while I was crying." Henrietta stated shyly. The senior cyborg swallowed so she could properly reply to her younger friend.

"Actually it was Claes's idea to get Jose." She corrected, prompting Henrietta to look at the aforementioned cyborg.

"Considering how close you are with him, I thought he'd have the best chance of snapping you out of it." Claes said while adjusting her glasses, making Henrietta smile, which was all the thanks she needed.

"Close, huh?" Triela said with a smirk. "That sure is a polite way of saying she's head over heels for him!" Henrietta looked away without a response, though her smile remained. Triela's smirk turned in to a cheeky grin; no response also meant no denial.

"Well, whatever it is, you're very lucky to have him as your handler!" Rico proclaimed with a big smile and a pat on Henrietta's back. "He thinks the world of you!"

"Yeah." Was all Henrietta could reply with as she felt heat rush to her cheeks. It was no secret that she felt a great deal of affection for Jose. Of course part of it was due to her conditioning, but her feelings for him grew more intense from how kind he was to her. She use to brush it off as selfishness, but Henrietta was in love.

Her nightmare left her mind completely engulfed in hopelessness, she didn't want anything to do with reality. Then Jose pulled her out, reminded her that there were people who cared about her, people she cared about.

As long as Jose was around, Henrietta was going to be okay.


	3. Sanguinare

Ch. 3

Sanguinare

Jose tired his best to maintain his posture while sitting across from Director Lorenzo's desk, but he couldn't help but feel like a child who just got sent to the principal's office. Lorenzo himself sat at his desk, taking a sip of tea before breaking the silence.

"Marco tells me Henrietta got in to a little scuffle with Angelica." He stated with an air of authority. Jose made eye contact with him, regretting it instantly.

"It was an accident, sir." He explained. "She had a bad dream and became emotionally volatile, Angelica tried to help her but Henrietta lashed out and hurt her."

"Yes, Marco told me that part." The director said with a sigh. "Thankfully the doctors were able to treat her, however she's fainted again; she'll have to stay there a little while longer." Jose's gaze lowered; he figured Henrietta would feel guilty if she heard that.

Angelica's memory had started failing not long ago, a sign that she didn't have much time left in her short life. However, she kept trying to push herself in order to prove to her handler, Marco, that she could still be useful, with varying degrees of success. The strange thing was the intervals of her memory loss; they were inconsistent. Rather than get worse each day, she seemed able to recall things in a real selective manner, other days she couldn't remember her own name. The medical staff couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"I've also read Dr. Bianchi's latest psyche evaluation for Henrietta." Lorenzo said with concern. "It's most disturbing."

"She still thinks it's nothing but a bad dream." Jose pointed out. "Hopefully it stays that way."

"And if it doesn't?" The Director asked sternly, making the handler cringe. "What will you do then?" Jose desperately fished for an answer in his mind, but found nothing. Lorenzo noticed his frustration and sighed.

"Look, we have a very important job coming up, I need all my fratello at their best." He explained. "We can't afford to have one of our best assassins losing control in the middle of it!"

"I suppose you want me to increase her conditioning?" Jose assumed with a barley hidden scowl, luckily the director didn't notice.

"I won't force you to do anything you think wouldn't benefit your cyborg, Jose." Lorenzo answered, his tone softened a bit. "All I ask is that you have a plan in case Henrietta becomes unstable, we'll need everyone who can work, and Angelica's hospitalization has already made this coming job more difficult."

"I'm trying sir." Jose replied quietly. "I don't want to resort to conditioning her if I can help it." Lorenzo nodded in understanding, aware that Jose had grown attached to Henrietta. At first he was worried that the handler was setting his cyborg up for failure, but the director came to appreciate the genuine bond the two of them shared. It was a comforting sight in the midst of all the grim things he surrounded himself with; little girls being brainwashed in to unquestioning killing machines, slaughtering terrorists without remorse until they either died on the field or lost their minds completely to conditioning.

Jose and Henrietta's innocence deserves to be preserved, Lorenzo thought.

* * *

><p>"Are you feeling more awake since you had lunch?" Jose asked as he drove.<p>

"Yeah." Henrietta answered from the passenger's seat with a smile. "I even snuck in a quick nap before we left!"

"Good, did you find Rico during lunch?"

"Yup, Triela and Claes were there too." The cyborg leaned back in her seat. "Talking with them helped, I feel better now." Jose smiled in response, glad that she was in a better mood at least. Her nightmare still troubled him greatly, but seeing that smile was all he needed right now. Henrietta noticed her handler smiling at her and blushed, lucky for her he didn't notice.

"Well, here we are." Jose pointed out as he parked his car. After getting out, Henrietta reached in to the back seat and pulled out an Amati violin case. As the fratello made their way to the training grounds they were interrupted by the sound of a gunshot, considering where they were going this wasn't cause for alarm.

"Sounds like someone beat us here." Jose thought out loud.

* * *

><p>"Remember, if you see two targets lined up you can take them both down with one shot." Jean instructed. "But if you're not confident in your weapon's penetration, then wait for them to separate so one of them doesn't notice the other going down."<p>

"Yes sir." Rico complied, she was laying on her belly while aiming her SVD Dragunov sniper rifle down a shooting range, in which wooden targets moved back and forth at varying speeds. Noticing that two of them were about to cross, she steadied her aim where she predicted they'd line up. When they overlapped she immediately shot, her high powered round cut through both targets with ease.

"I did it Jean!" Rico exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Stay focused Rico." Jean ordered coldly. "Now, let's try….." He was interrupted by the sounds of footsteps behind him. Turning around rewarded him with the sight of Jose and Henrietta approaching.

"Actually, keep practicing that Rico." The handler said to his blonde cyborg. "I'll be right back."

"Yes sir." Rico replied before taking another shot. Jean strolled on up to his younger brother, who noticed him.

"Oh, hey Jean." He greeted hesitantly.

"We need to talk, Jose." The older brother said with a scowl. Jose sighed and turned his attention to his cyborg.

"Henrietta, get your equipment ready and head for the CQB course." He told her. "Wait for me on your earpiece."

"Yes sir." She replied before setting her violin case down, opening it, and lifted out an FN P90 submachine gun. The brunette cyborg loaded a clip in to her firearm with a distinct clicking noise, popped in her earpiece, and made for her assigned destination.

Jose paid attention her as she left, relieved that she seemed to have more spring in her step, gleeful gun toting aside. Jean stood next to him and looked in the same general direction.

"She's looking better." The elder brother commented.

"You heard, didn't you?" Jose asked rhetorically.

"Rico told me." Jean replied. "I think you know what I'm about to say." Jose knew alright, it wouldn't be the first he suggested it.

"How about you worry about your own cyborg?" Jose asked with barley hidden annoyance.

"Well, when yours injures another, I think I have a right to be concerned." Jean retorted. "Especially since Rico and Henrietta share the same bunk bed."

"It was an accident." Jose told him, his frustration getting worse.

"What if it happened during a job, Jose?" His brother asked. "While she's armed? You think Marco or any other handler would care if it was an accident then?" Jose had no response, all he could do was clench his fists. Jean noticed this and sighed.

"You know, if she remembers it'll only spell disaster, for her and everyone around her." He said with his eyes closed. "If you really care about her, then you should increase her conditioning so she forgets." Jose couldn't stay quiet now, so he finally turned to face his brother.

"I'm sorry, but I fail to see how you're in any position to give advice about caring!" He accused. "Since you see cyborgs as nothing but tools!"

"They are tools." Jean interrupted, still not looking at Jose. "I just thought I'd speak your language so you'd understand how severe this is." Insulted, Jose excused himself and made for the observation room, leaving Jean alone to train Rico.

* * *

><p>At the start of the CQB course, Henrietta double checked the condition of her P90, wanting to be ready. Her self-evaluation was interrupted by a voice from her earpiece.<p>

"Henrietta? It's Jose." It said, snapping the cyborg to attention. "Are you good to go?"

"Yes sir." She replied.

"Okay, you're going to have a two minute time limit for this exercise." Jose instructed. "But that doesn't mean you should rush it, stay in cover as much as you can and clear every room."

"Understood." Henrietta acknowledged, prepared to start.

"Wait on my signal." Her handler ordered. The cyborg stared down a mock hallway, bullet holes littering the course told tales of other cyborgs who trained here. Down the hall she could see one of the course's many cameras mounted on a wall; Jose was watching her, she had no intention of disappointing him.

"Go!" Jose ordered, making Henrietta dash down the hall. She reached a turn and leaned against the wall, a quick glanced around the corner revealed no targets, so she kept moving. Seeing a room down the other hall, she remained against the wall as she moved. Once there she peeked inside, two wooden cutout targets with people drawn on them waited for her. She quickly turned the corner and fired two quick bursts from her SMG, resulting in two bullet ridden targets. Afterwards she quickly replaced her weapon's clip with a fresh one.

Henrietta then made her way to a room on the opposite end of the hall, inside were three targets, one of which was behind a wooden plank and another hid behind a stone pillar. She sprinted inside, shooting the one exposed target as she made for cover behind another pillar. Then she popped out from cover and sprayed the wooden plank, shredding the target behind it. A quick turn around her pillar got her a clear shot at the third target, which she immediately took advantage of.

* * *

><p>From the observation room, Jose could see Henrietta's progress through the cameras. He watched as she cleared rooms one after the other with machine-like efficiency, the speakers echoing the rapid fire gunshots from her P90. What the handler was seeing now was a stark contrast to the small child that was crying hysterically last night, now here she was gunning down wooden cutouts of thugs and terrorists.<p>

It was more than a little unsettling for Jose, to say the least. He found it rather difficult to remind himself this wasn't all there was to his little charge while seeing this, that she was also an emotionally fragile and shy child yearning for companionship. He felt like he should be use to this by now, but after seeing how terribly human Henrietta had acted last night, it only made it worse. These thoughts made Jose silently thankful that she made it to the last room.

* * *

><p>Henrietta leaned next to the door to the last room, since it was closed she didn't have the luxury of knowing how many bad guys were inside. Only thirty seconds remained on the time limit, no time to come up with a plan. She'd have to just barge in, lay down suppressing fire while taking a quick headcount, then get the hell out and pick them off.<p>

The little cyborg positioned herself in front of the door, then stepped back a bit. After a few seconds she charged forward and kicked with all her might, the door easily gave way to her cybernetic strength and collapsed in a heap. She aimed inside and only found one target, but couldn't bring herself to shoot immediately.

The illustration on the cutout was holding an axe.

Suddenly, Henrietta wasn't in the course anymore, she had somehow ended up in some living room in a nice house. Surrounding her were severed body parts, strewn organs, and five tall men. The man in front of her wielded an axe, staring at her with a kind of disgusting hunger.

Henrietta's eyes widened in terror as she began to hyperventilate, she tried to run but couldn't move her feet. The man undid his belt while approaching her, tossing it aside. When he was within arm's reach of Henrietta, she tried to scream but all that came out was some kind of choking noise. All she could do was watch as her aggressor raised his axe above her. Nobody was here for her, nobody cared.

"Henrietta!" Jose's voice suddenly rang in her ear. The five men and the room disappeared, placing her back in the CQB course. The cyborg was aiming her P90 at the last target, which was already filled with bullet holes. A click alerted her to the fact that she was squeezing the trigger; she was out of ammo. She lowered her gun and noticed she was breathing quite heavily, trying to stop revealed that her heart was racing too.

"Uh, you passed." Jose said over the earpiece, his concern did not go unnoticed by the panicked cyborg. "Meet me outside the course."

"Yes sir." She replied with a surprisingly shaky voice. Henrietta started making her way out, flipping on her weapon's safety as she walked. On the way out she hugged her P90 like a teddy bear, needing something to hold on to until she got to Jose.

She needed him after what she saw.


	4. Consapevolezza

Ch. 4

Consapevolezza

Henrietta slouched a bit in the passenger's seat of Jose's car, the two of them haven't said a word so far. Jose kept his eyes on the road as his thoughts wandered to what he saw on the CQB course; Henrietta unloaded an entire clip in to the last target, even when it emptied she still kept trying to shoot. It wasn't until he called out to her that she stopped, she seemed confused then, like she forgot where she was. The need for answers becoming unbearable, the handler broke the silence.

"Henrietta." He addressed her quietly, making her flinch a little. "Do you want to talk about what happened back there?" The cyborg sank in her seat, and Jose could have sworn he heard her whimper.

"I…um." Henrietta stuttered. "I passed the course." Obviously she was trying to avoid the subject.

"Yes you did." Jose replied. "But something happened at the end there, you weren't yourself." No response from her. "What were you thinking when you sprayed that last target?" Henrietta started fidgeting with her hands, not wanting to revisit that. She then stared at the floor in defeat.

"I saw them." She murmured quickly.

"Who?"

"Those tall men." Henrietta looked out the window. "The ones from my nightmare, I don't even remember shooting the last target." A lump formed in Jose's throat; this was a really bad sign. He felt worse when he noticed Henrietta trembling, about ready to cry.

"I was all alone!" She whimpered. "It was like I was in that dream again but…."

"Hey!" Jose called to her. "Look at me." The cyborg did so, making her handler relieved when he saw no tears yet. She still looked dejected though, expected but troubling to him. Despite this he managed a smile.

"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" Jose asked, trying to get her not to think about what happened. Henrietta looked ahead and pondered for a few seconds.

"Well, what I'd really like is….uh…." She hesitated, face going slightly red.

"Go ahead."

"I'd like you to hold my hand." Henrietta shyly requested. "But you're driving, so it's probably not a good idea."

"No, it's okay." Jose reassured her, glad that there was something he could do. "I can drive with one hand." Henrietta smiled as she hesitantly laid her hand on the hump between their seats, Jose's hand followed soon after, gently resting on top of hers and easily enveloping the much smaller hand in his fingers. Henrietta leaned back and closed her eyes as she felt more relaxed.

It was an unspoken rule to not do things like this at the agency, but they weren't at the agency right now. Besides; Henrietta needed the comfort.

Jose only recently started allowing this, ever since Henrietta's chaotic encounter with the Padania assassin Pinocchio. Shortly before then, Jose started feeling a strange sense of alienation towards Henrietta; her seemingly growing need for affection began to worry him. But a talk with Dr. Bianchi proved rather enlightening, "Be clever like a snake, but simple like a pigeon," he said to him. Jose was thinking about it too hard, so he resolved to just let it flow with Henrietta no matter what they discussed.

Ever since then, Jose couldn't really describe about how he felt about her, but things felt more natural somehow. Well, as natural as a relationship with a brainwashed child assassin could be, but still. It was like his urge to help her had been renewed, the bizarre bond he forged with her had strengthened.

Now here she was, letting the warmth from her handler's grasp sooth her and make all the scary things in her head go away. No way was this going to fix everything, but for now it was enough. However, this brought something rather important to Jose's mind, making his smile fade.

"Uh, Henrietta?" He addressed her hesitantly.

"Yes, Jose?" The cyborg answered, enjoying having her hand held.

"I want you to go to bed early tonight." Henrietta's eyes opened and her smile vanished as she quickly turned to face him.

"Why?" She asked.

"We have an important job tomorrow." Jose replied, not wanting to upset her. "And your sleep schedule is probably a little screwy after last night, you need your rest." Henrietta lowered her gaze with a frown.

"What if I have that nightmare again?" She inquired, a little more quiet. "I'm scared it'll happen again after what I saw on the course." Jose cursed in his mind, he didn't want to remind her of it but she needed to hear what he just said. Now that she was thinking about it, the odds of her having it again increased, unless…..

"How about I come to your room and talk with you until you get sleepy?" The handler suggested. "If you keep your mind off it, you won't dream about it." Henrietta blushed in response to his offer, eventually her smile returned.

"I'd like that a lot actually." She said.

* * *

><p>"I'd like you all to simmer down, please." Director Lorenzo said to all the staff present around the table, handlers and support staff alike all hushed. "Now on to business; as you all know, the government has given us a very important assignment." He gestured to Jean, who walked up to a board carrying a bunch of photos.<p>

"A ship called the _Isabella _was recently hijacked by Padania terrorists." He explained while sticking a photo of a large docked ship. "She's a cargo ship made to transport hazardous materials."

"I'm sorry, but how is a cargo ship worth our time?" Marco asked from across the room. "What does the RF want with it?"

"Well, sense it's a cargo ship it's obvious they intend to transport something." Hilshire spoke up, the detective in him being put to work. "Perhaps they plan to steal something else as well."

"Precisely Hilshire." Jean continued, a little annoyed at being interrupted. "We were able to capture one of the terrorists involved in the hijacking, after a little interrogation we learned this is only step one for something big."

"Did he say what?" Jose asked.

"No, those involved were just told to dump whatever cargo it had, take it somewhere, and hand it over to another crew." Jean explained. "They were never told what it would be used for. By the time he told us where the crew swap was going to take place, it had already happened."

"So where do we come in?" Jose inquired with a quick look at his watch; it was almost time for Henrietta to go to bed.

"The captive also told us where he was given his orders." Jean said as he posted a picture of an apartment building. "The address he gave us leads to this apartment complex, its owner apparently is in the RF's pocket; they use it as one big safe house. He said if we want to find out more, we should go here."

"What are we looking for?" Hilshire asked as he crossed his arms.

"Preferably, you take one of them alive for questioning." Lorenzo spoke up. "But if that's not possible, look for any sort of documentation; computers and such. With a plan this elaborate, they're bound to have recorded something somewhere." The handlers looked over the apartment blueprints in their possession, quickly memorizing them.

"This operation goes down at 3:00 in the afternoon tomorrow, I expect all required fratellos to be prepared." Lorenzo explained. "Those involved include Jean and Rico, Hilshire and Triela, and Jose and Henrietta." Jose flinched at the mention of his fratello, catching Jean's attention.

"Sir, if I may." He interrupted. "I don't believe the Jose/Henrietta fratello is in top form for this job, if you recall there was an incident involving Angelica."

"Which is why we can't afford another absent team." Lorenzo said to Jean with a subtle glare. "This job was originally going to involve the Marco/Angelica fratello, and we can't spare any more for the time being, these three teams will have to do."

Jose's gaze lowered; he hoped his cyborg would be up to it.

* * *

><p>"Hey Rico?" Triela addressed with a look of concern on her face.<p>

"Yeah?" Rico responded quizzically from across the small table.

"You saw Henrietta at the training grounds, right?" The senior cyborg asked. "Did she look okay?"

"She looked fine when she showed up." The blonde cyborg answered, donning a frown. "But she and Jose left early without saying anything, I think something bad happened." Triela frowned in response; Henrietta seemed like she got better during lunch.

"Aren't you usually playing with her at this hour?" Claes asked from her top bunk. Rico turned her attention to her as her frown vanished.

"She said Jose wanted her to go to sleep early tonight." Rico replied. "So I'm letting her have the room to herself until she falls asleep!" She suddenly gasped as she remembered something. "Oh! Jean wanted me to come by his office after the meeting, I better go."

Rico made for the door with alarming haste, leaving the other two cyborgs alone to worry. Claes returned to the book she was reading while Triela stared at her favorite teddy bear; Augustus, which was perched on the table.

Triela sulked, thinking she had enough on her mind with feeling indifferent to putting Pinocchio six feet under, now there was something wrong with Henrietta. If there was anything good about this, she at least felt worried for Henrietta, sure it was a negative feeling but at least she felt something. Unlike the Pinocchio dilemma.

"You know it too, don't you?" Claes asked, pulling Triela from her thoughts. "Henrietta's not okay at all."

"Yeah." Triela replied sadly, now hugging Augustus. "Cyborgs aren't supposed to remember their dreams, at least not as clearly as she does with that one."

Due to conditioning, cyborgs had great difficulty remembering their own dreams, they shed tears in their sleep and wake up not remembering why. Occasionally, one might be able to recall what they've seen, but even then it's usually incredibly vague. The clarity of Henrietta's nightmare was cause enough for alarm, but her reaction to it made it even worse.

"Is…is it starting for her?" Triela hesitantly asked, afraid to even utter such horrible words. "Is she deteriorating?" Finally saying it made bile rise in her throat.

"I highly doubt it." Claes said as she closed her book, judging that her distressed roommate was more worthy of her attention right now. "It hasn't been that long for her, and probably won't be for even longer if Jose stays the course with her lax conditioning. Besides, its forgetfulness that's a sign of deterioration, not retention."

"Then what the hell is going on Claes?" The senior cyborg desperately asked.

"As hard as it is to believe, I don't know everything, Triela." Claes answered with a softer voice than earlier. "And you can't fix everything, all we can do is leave this up to Jose."

Triela hated this, Henrietta confided in her numerous times now and she or Claes usually had something to say or do in order to cheer her up. It wasn't always an easy task, given how emotionally high maintenance Henrietta was, but she despised seeing her so upset.

Now here Triela was, useless to her.

* * *

><p>Henrietta sat patiently on her bunk, already under the sheets. After a little bit she looked at the clock and began to worry if Jose wasn't going to come, then a knock startled her.<p>

"Come in." She said quietly. The door opened and revealed an exhausted Jose. Though ecstatic that he came, the small cyborg picked up on how tired he looked.

"Hey, Henrietta." Jose greeted with a smile and a hushed tone. "You sleepy yet?"

"Only a little." Henrietta replied sadly with a small smile of her own. "But you look more tired than I am!"

"Don't worry about it." Jose reassured her as he stepped closer to her bunk bed, upon closer inspection he noticed she was shivering slightly. "Are you cold?"

"Slightly." Henrietta told him while pulling up the covers a bit more. "Is it going to get colder later?"

"Yeah, it's that time of year." The handler confirmed as he looked out the window. "They even say it's going to snow later this month."

"Really!?" Henrietta inquired enthusiastically, making Jose look back at her.

"Easy there!" He told her with a chuckle. "There's still a chance it might not snow too." Seeing his cyborg set all excited over something as simple as snow like a normal child reminded him of something; though her body was almost completely synthetic and her brain conditioned to not feel bad about killing, at her core Henrietta was still a little girl. As such, she still got excited by things a normal child would, other cyborgs however are normally conditioned to not care about stuff like that.

"However, if it does snow…." Jose thought out loud as an idea came to mind.

"What is it?" Henrietta asked as she tilted her head curiously. Jose casually leaned against the wall.

"I haven't gone sledding in the longest time!" He told her. "What do you say?" The little cyborg's eyes widened in response to his proposition.

"Can we?" She asked as she began to shake with anticipation.

"If you do well enough on this next job and it ends up snowing, then sure." The handler explained. Completely consumed by excitement, Henrietta starting kicking her feet while giggling uncontrollably. The prospect of sledding seemed fun enough, but doing it with Jose turned the hype factor up to eleven for her.

"I promise I won't let you down, Jose!" The cyborg proclaimed. Jose felt a little uncomfortable hearing that, but at least she had incentive to stay focused tomorrow. Noticing that her handler looked less pleased than before, Henrietta ceased her celebration.

"What's wrong?" She asked, more calm than earlier. Jose looked up and quickly put his smile back on.

"Nothing." He lied. "Just getting tired is all." Not convinced, Henrietta frowned. She thought back to before the incident with Pinocchio on the survey bridge, Jose seemed "tired" then as well, and didn't speak with her as much.

"Jose, do I bother you?" Henrietta asked suddenly, making her handler's smile fade and his eyes widen slightly.

"What makes you ask that?" Jose asked back, growing worried. Henrietta's gaze lowered.

"I noticed it a while ago, around the time we had to assassinate that Lieutenant Colonel at the Tosca performance." She explained. "You seemed distant, like you were avoiding me." A lump formed in Jose's throat; he had no idea she became so attentive to such things.

"Henrietta…." He began to say, but his cyborg wasn't finished speaking.

"If I'm bothering you then I want you to let me know!" Henrietta demanded as she looked at him. "Then I can stop, okay?" Jose was speechless; this was quite mature for her, or any other cyborg for that matter, let alone normal children her age. He figured it was due to how little conditioning she received, it probably allowed her to be aware enough to evaluate her own behavior. This made Jose think of the conversation Henrietta had with Marco before the meteor shower, when she admitted that her lack of fear when faced with death was probably her conditioning talking. If she was aware enough to realize that her words may have been influenced, was what she said actually genuine?

Jose walked on up to her bunk and placed a firm grip on Henrietta's shoulder, staring intently at her face.

"Henrietta, don't ever think of yourself as bothersome." He told her. "You've earned every gift I've given you, you deserve to be happy after everything I put you through!" Henrietta stared at him with her mouth agape; he wasn't loud, but the sheer sincerity and intensity in his voice shook her to the very core. It was overwhelming, yet it did not frighten her, in fact she found it comforting. Eventually a small smile formed on the little cyborg's face.

"Okay." Henrietta whispered, now exhausted. "Thank you for all you've done for me, Jose."

Jose returned her smile and released his grip on her, afterwards she yawned and rested her head on her pillow. Her handler pulled the covers over her, then took a few steps back. Sleep began to take the cyborg.

"Good night, Henrietta." Jose whispered.

"Good night." She replied as he left.


	5. Terrorizzato e rotto

Think I'll start asking for reviews now, they'd really help.

* * *

><p>Ch. 5<p>

Terrorizzato e rotto

Sunlight coated Henrietta's sleeping form, illuminating the synthetic skin on her face poking out from under the covers. Eventually her eyelids started twitching as they slowly opened, revealing moist eyes. Both the sunlight and the tears in her eyes made the cyborg rub her face with the sheets, wiping the tears away in the process.

After sitting up, Henrietta starting stretching but paused when she came to a realization; it was morning and she had good night's sleep. She then smiled and let out a huge sigh of relief; her talk with Jose really did help.

Noticing something odd out of the corner of her eye, Henrietta peeked over side of the bunk and was met with a peculiar sight on the lower bunk; Rico had partially fallen off her bed but was still fast asleep. The blonde cyborg lay with her arms spread across the floor and Henrietta could have sworn she saw drool, this rather amusing sight made her giggle as an idea came to mind.

She quietly climbed down from her bunk, slowly so the ladder wouldn't creak and disturb her out like a light bunkmate. Henrietta then carefully stepped over the unconscious Rico as she made her way to a cupboard on the other side of the room, once there she opened one of the drawers and lifted out her treasured camera, one of the many gifts Jose rewarded her with. The brunette cyborg positioned herself at the far corner of the room, needing enough space to get her comical subject within the shot, once she was confident she looked at Rico through the lens as she adjusted the camera's zoom. Finally she took the picture with a satisfying click, capturing the gloriously candid image of Rico.

Henrietta giggled, giddy at the prospect of adding her new picture to her photo album, she'd have to ask Jose to get it developed after the mission. Suddenly in the mood to look at her album, Henrietta put her camera away and retrieved it before bringing it over to a small table in the middle of the room. After taking a seat she opened it to her most recent additions; her second trip to Sicily. The cyborg smiled fondly as she looked at the set of pictures; they started out with simple shots of the beach, she even got a little too excited and took pictures of other beach goers.

Then the photos became focused on Henrietta and Rico playing on the beach, she asked Jose to take these, eventually Jose and Jean made their way in to the next few shots. Some photos were taken rather awkwardly; some were out of focus or sideways, indicating that Rico had attempted to take some shots of her own. The collection ended off with final pairing shots; starting off with Jose and Jean standing back to back, a rare instance in which they actually acted like brothers. This was followed by Henrietta and Rico sitting atop large rocks with waves crashing behind them.

Then came a picture of Rico and Jean standing next to each other, Rico seemed extra bubbly in the photo while her handler looked none too interested in bonding with his cyborg, it took some convincing on Jose's part to get him in the shot. Finally there came a photo of Henrietta and Jose, the cyborg had her hands shyly hidden behind her as her handler kept one hand on her shoulder. This one made Henrietta blush, she thoroughly enjoyed being that close to Jose.

It wasn't until Angelica's memory started failing that Henrietta appreciated the significance of her camera and the album; what was currently happening to Angelica was a fate that awaited all cyborgs at the end of their lifespan. Even if it would happen to Henrietta later than most other cyborgs, it was still going to happen. The Agency was performing experiments on Claes in order to find a way to stall the process, perhaps even reverse it outright, but it was taking too long. Unless some miracle happened, none of the current generation of cyborgs would probably be around to see these experiments bear fruit.

Henrietta was okay with this though, with her camera and photo album she had a way to remember anything she forgot, and she wasn't afraid of dying anyway. As long as Jose was okay she'd gladly shove off the mortal coil, even though she was aware it was probably her conditioning that made her think that way.

* * *

><p>Traffic in Rome was tolerable, perfect for a van to transport three cybernetic children and their handlers to a mission sight. Inside, all three fratellos checked their weapons and other mission critical equipment, all that could be heard was the metallic clicks of guns being loaded. Henrietta, Rico, and Triela all had their usual weapons of choice, Triela's being a Winchester Model 1897 shotgun mounted with an M1917 bayonet. All the handlers brought were their sidearms, though Jose and Hilshire also sported light bulletproof vests beneath their suit coats.<p>

Jose kept his eye on Henrietta as they prepared, glad that she was looking better than yesterday, Rico and Triela also glanced at her from time to time. What Claes said still ringed in Triela's ears; Henrietta's not okay, a quick look at Jose confirmed he knew it too. Though she seemed fine now, Henrietta could slip back in to that moodiness. Unlike Jose, Triela didn't know what was causing the younger cyborg's distress, but conditioning told her it wasn't her place to know and it pissed her off.

"Alright, let's go through the plan one last time." Jean announced after everyone was ready for action. "Our primary target is the man in charge of operations in the safe house we're raiding, goes by Roberto, all other FRF members in there are expendable. However, failure to capture him won't necessarily jeopardize the mission; these guys are bound to have some form of documentation detailing their future plans. If Roberto proves too difficult to apprehend, I want him put down."

The fratellos memorized what Roberto looked like, as well as the layout of the apartment complex, which came in to play in the next part of Jean's lecture.

"Rico and I will set up a sniper's nest in a building we rented out across the street, we'll cover the rest of you as you make your way through the complex." He instructed. "Hilshire and Triela will enter through the roof using one of the adjacent rooftops and make their way down, you two don't leave any survivors on the way."

Triela's grip on her shotgun tightened in response to Jean's order, and Hilshire nodded.

"Jose and Henrietta will enter through the ground floor and work their way up." Jean explained as he turned his attention to the aforementioned fratello. "I trust you have an entry plan?"

"It's taken care of." Jose answered as Henrietta shifted in the seat next to him, eager to get to work.

"All right then." Jean's gaze drifted to the driver seat. "Alfonso, you can drop them off here, there's barley anyone around."

"Got it." Alfonso replied as he brought the van to a halt. Jean opened the van's back doors, allowing everyone except him and Rico to leave.

"I'll try to leave some for you Rico!" Triela mentioned as she hopped out.

"Okay." Rico replied with a smile before turning to her bunkmate. "Good luck, Henrietta!"

"Thanks, you too!" Henrietta said with a smiling glance over her shoulder as she left with her handler.

Jose and Hilshire immediately split up once they left the van, taking their cyborgs with them. As Jose walked down the sidewalk, Henrietta trotted alongside him with her Amati violin case. To anyone who saw them, they were just a man escorting his little sister to violin practice. Nobody would suspect they were a government agent and his baby faced killer.

* * *

><p>"Rico, get set up at that window." Jean ordered as he readied a set of binoculars.<p>

"Yes sir." Rico replied as she unpacked her Dragunov. Jean took position in front of a window next to the one he ordered Rico to occupy, from there they had a clear view of the Padania apartment complex and surrounding buildings.

"Jean, I'm ready." Rico announced, prompting her handler to check if it was true. Indeed, there she was aiming her sniper rifle out the window.

"Good, now don't shoot unless I tell you to." He instructed sternly.

"Yes sir."

"Jean, its Hilshire." A voice said from his earpiece. "Triela and I are in position." A quick look through his binoculars revealed the aforementioned fratello hiding behind vents on a rooftop adjacent to that of the complex, weapons at the ready.

"Copy that, hold position." Jean told his colleague. "Jose, how close are you?"

"Henrietta and I are just around the corner from the front entrance, waiting on you." Jose responded, prompting Jean's view to move where his brother pointed out. Sure enough, there he was with Henrietta looking out for any sort of threat.

"Rico's good to go, you can start whenever." Jean pointed out. "Hilshire, wait on Jose's signal." Jose stayed around the corner with his sidearm drawn as Henrietta strolled on up to the front door, still just carrying her violin case. Jean took a deep breath.

"Here we go." He muttered under his breath.

* * *

><p>The uneasy FRF grunt tapped his foot as he stood guard at the front door, which was suddenly assaulted by a knock, making him jump a little. With a hand over his holstered gun, he cautiously opened the door, waiting for him on the other side was a trembling little girl carrying a violin case.<p>

"Um….can you help me?" She requested with a shaky voice and frightened eyes. "I was on my way to violin practice, but I think I'm lost now!" The grunt relaxed with a sigh and pulled his hand away from his sidearm, no danger here. However something still had to be done about this little visitor.

"Can I use your phone to call my mom, please? I'm scared and I just want to go home!" The little girl whimpered.

"Okay, calm down!" He told her, realizing she could draw attention if she stood here for too long. "Come inside for now." He couldn't actually let her use a phone, but she had to get out of sight.

"Thank you." The child said meekly. After letting her in, the grunt noticed a colleague of his coming down the stairs, distracting him from the child suddenly dropping her case and bringing her elbow down on his knee with tremendous force.

His kneecap broken, all he could do was kneel on the floor and scream in pain as he watched the tiny Trojan horse pull out a previously concealed SIG -Sauer P239 pistol and mercilessly gun down the other grunt with two quick shots to his torso, sending his limp body tumbling down the stairs while leaving blood where it fell.

His last thoughts before she turned around and put a round in his skull were of how fucked up this world turned out to be.

* * *

><p>After dispatching the crippled guard, Henrietta quickly scanned the room for any other signs of danger. Finding none, she reached for her earpiece.<p>

"It's clear, Jose." She announced.

"On my way." Jose replied.

Henrietta reloaded her SIG while she waited for her handler; while her clip still had ammo it was a good idea to swap for a fresh one before infiltrating a building full of terrorists. The smell of blood tainted the air around the cyborg, thankfully her conditioning made her not care for it. Eventually Jose made his way inside, armed with an FN Five-seveN pistol. He paused for a minute to look at his charge's handiwork; Henrietta stood unbothered between two corpses while staring at him with disturbingly innocent eyes, awaiting further orders.

"Good work." He told her. "Get ready to move on."

"Yes sir." Henrietta replied before putting away her sidearm and kneeling down to open her violin case.

"Hilshire, its Jose." The handler said to his earpiece. "The ground floor is secure, move in!"

"Roger that." Hilshire responded.

By the time the exchange was finished, Henrietta was already armed with her P90 and ready to go.

"Let's start heading up." Jose ordered with a glance up the stairs. "Remember to keep an eye out for Roberto."

"Yes sir!" Henrietta acknowledged as she aimed her weapon forward.

* * *

><p>Three Republican Factionists patrolled the hallway near the roof, all of them armed. Their idleness was interrupted by a gunshot and one of the comrades tumbling down the staircase leading to the roof, with a large gaping hole blown in his abdomen. Before any of them could react, a bullet hole suddenly appeared in one of the windows as one of the guards suddenly crumpled lifeless to the floor, leaving a red smear on the wall behind him. Another guard turned to look where the shot originated but immediately met the same fate.<p>

The third stayed clear of the window but suddenly heard a pair of feet drop behind him, he turned just in time to see Triela blow him away with her shotgun, slamming his lifeless body against the wall to collapse in a bloody heap.

"It's clear Hilshire." Triela called to her handler as she loaded her weapon with shells. Hilshire made his way downstairs, armed with a SIG Sauer P232 pistol.

"Thanks for the assistance, Rico." He said in to his earpiece. "Jean, any sign of Roberto from where you are?"

"Negative, looks like he's smart enough to avoid any windows." Jean answered. "But since his room is on the second floor, he'd most likely be there. That'll make Jose and Henrietta the closest ones to him."

"Got it, did you hear that Jose?" Hilshire asked.

* * *

><p>"Sure did." Jose replied to his colleague as he and Henrietta leaned against a wall on the staircase. "If he runs, we'll try to…." He was interrupted by the sound of gunfire on Hilshire's end.<p>

"Get down Hilshire!" Jose heard Triela shout.

"Damn, we're pinned down!" Hilshire announced.

"Jean, it sounds like they could use Rico's help!" Jose told his brother urgently.

"You're going to need it in a few seconds, lots of RF up ahead." Jean responded quickly. "I'm having Rico cover you since you're closer to the target."

"But…." The younger brother began to say before being interrupted by Hilshire.

"This isn't anything we can't handle, just don't let Roberto get away!" He shouted over the gunfire. Jose relented with a frustrated sigh.

"Roger that." He hesitantly acknowledged.

"Are Triela and Hilshire going to be okay?" Henrietta asked worriedly, prompting her handler to look down at her. The concern on her face almost made him drop his work persona, but he managed to maintain it. Henrietta and the other cyborgs all looked up to Triela as a sort of big sister, morale would certainly take a huge dip if anything happened to her.

"Don't worry, Triela's not one to go down easily." Jose reassured his cyborg, making her nod and stay focused. "Roberto should be on this floor, stay alert."

"Okay."

Henrietta went up a few steps and peeked around the corner, a makeshift barricade had been set up half way down the hall. A loud click coming from the other end of the hall told her to get back in to cover, saving her from a sudden burst of gunfire.

"Two of them behind a barricade." The cyborg told her handler calmly. "There's a room to the left, might be connected to another behind them."

"It'll probably be occupied, but we don't have much of a choice." Jose added quietly. "We'll have to be quick, get a flash bang ready and wait on my signal."

"Yes sir."

Henrietta readied a flash bang grenade and prepared to just book it, this was going to be incredibly risky. This would be fine if it was just her going out there; since she's a cyborg she has a better chance of surviving, but the just human Jose was charging out there too. Whatever happened, she vowed to let nothing happen to her precious handler.

"Now!" Jose ordered. Henrietta pulled the pin off with her teeth and chucked the grenade around the corner, prompting her and Jose to look the other way. Yelling and cursing indicated that their foes were blinded, allowing them to leave cover and make a break for the room Henrietta pointed out earlier. The cyborg fired a few short bursts from her P90 at the barricade as she ran, sadly the terrorists were smart enough to stay in cover while incapacitated.

Once the fratello made it inside, they were met with the sight of a guard standing in the open, prompting Henrietta to immediately mow him down, breaking the window behind him and reddening the floor in the process. Another guard burst in from a door on the right, but was immediately put down by a shot in the head from Jose. With the door open, Henrietta could make out the image of their target inside.

"I found Roberto!" She announced to Jose, but by the time he looked he had already exited through a door to the right.

"After him!" Jose shouted as the fratello gave chase. Before they could take three steps however, a pair of guards rushed in from the way Roberto left and immediately started firing in their direction, Henrietta recognized them as the pair behind the barricade. The cyborg grabbed Jose and yanked him down in to cover behind a couch with her, earning a slightly annoyed thanks from him.

The gunfire suddenly stopped when two louder gunshots rang out, a quick look on the fratello's part revealed two dead terrorists and a pair of bullet holes in the window beside them.

"Thank you, Rico." Jose muttered under his breath as he and Henrietta got up and continued their pursuit. Once back out in the hallway, they noticed they had made it on the other side of the barricade, along with a staircase to their left.

"Roberto must have gone up." Henrietta thought out loud.

"If he goes any higher, he'll run in to Triela and Hilshire." Jose pointed out. "Thing is though, Rico won't be able to cover us as much on the next floor."

A spray of gunfire from the opposite end of the hall interrupted the fratello's discussion, making them take cover around separate corners.

"Damn! Where did these guys come from?" Jose wondered out loud.

Seeing two of them getting bold and rushing their position, Henrietta briefly leaned out of cover and went full auto on her SMG down the hall, only one of the grunts was lucky enough to get back behind cover while he watched his buddy collapse coated in wounds.

"Henrietta, get upstairs and find Roberto!" Jose ordered as he blind fired around the corner. "I'll keep these guys off you!" He didn't want to send her up there alone, but he figured she'd stand the best chance of moving without Rico's watchful eye since she's a cyborg.

"Uh….right." Henrietta acknowledged with great reluctance. Though she didn't want to leave her handler alone with a bunch of enemies, her conditioning told her to follow the order he gave her. Besides; Rico was still around to support him.

Taking advantage of a lull in the firefight, Henrietta reloaded and sprinted up the staircase behind her. No way was she about to let Jose down.

* * *

><p>The FRF guard hid behind and open door, having been told to watch out for an armed little girl by his boss as he ran by. He didn't get to see her though, a quick burst of gunfire through his flimsy cover saw to that.<p>

Henrietta cautiously moved forward and stepped over the fresh corpse, leaving red footprints behind her after stepping in her foe's blood. The sound of a door closing ahead made her lean against the wall; that must be where he's hiding. Pulling out another flash bang, the cyborg stood next to the door and prepared to breach. After a few seconds she hopped in front of the door, kicked it open, chucked the flash bang inside, and slammed herself back against the wall.

Once it went off, Henrietta immediately charged inside and scanned the room, to her surprise she found nobody waiting for her.

Confused, the cyborg was unprepared for the swift kick that nailed her in the head and knocked her to the floor like a ragdoll. She immediately reacted by drawing her SIG and shooting in the general direction of her attacker, recognizing him as Roberto. Her target managed to get out of the way and dive behind a desk.

Henrietta stood back up and started approaching Roberto's hiding place, keeping her sidearm trained on it as she moved. Once she was about to get behind the desk, Roberto sprang out and swung at her with an improvised weapon, prompting her to jump back a bit. When the cyborg got a clear look at her target she gasped and froze, her eyes widened and her hands started shaking.

Roberto was holding an axe.

Henrietta wanted to shoot, but her hands refused to do anything but shake as she started hyperventilating. For a split second she was back in that room from her dream, and Roberto had turned into the axe wielding tall man. She was suddenly back in the mission sight, then in her nightmare again, like someone was changing the channel on a television.

Roberto noticed that the little cyborg had completely lost her composure, making a grin appear on his face as an idea came to mind. He just walked up to her and smacked the gun out of her hand, leaving her to back away and cower.

"Aw, what's wrong?" The terrorist mockingly asked as he knelt down in front of her, making her back up some more. Henrietta tripped and fell backwards with a loud shriek, then curled up in a shaking ball, whimpering like a wounded animal.

She was now fully trapped in the room from her nightmare, trying desperately to crawl away from the man with the axe but to no avail. As she crawled her hand his something wet, a glance revealed it was the bisected torso of a dead woman, her face frozen in a perpetual state of agony. Henrietta suddenly wanted to cry, surprising since she never shed any tears for the dead before.

As the cyborg stared at the deceased woman however, she couldn't help but feel like she knew this person, at first she dismissed it but Henrietta had in fact met this woman before. Loads of adult women came to mind; Ferro, Priscilla, Olga. But then a name she didn't recognized popped in, thinking of it again invoked an intense surge of sorrow, then she realized it was the name of the dead woman. Henrietta knew her name, knew that she was important to her, she didn't know how important until she recalled something else she called her, something all children called the most important woman in their lives.

"Mommy?" Henrietta whimpered.

The man with the axe pulled Henrietta on her feet by the hair and then lifted her up with one arm without a struggle; she was too busy processing what she just remembered, all she did was stare off into nothing as she went limp. Out of the corner of her eye, Henrietta noticed Jose's severed head on the floor, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. No, it wasn't Jose, it was someone else she met but couldn't remember. Staring at the head long enough appeared to make it morph in to someone else, another name came to the cyborg's chaotic mind, the name of someone who loved her dearly, and died protecting her. But rather than say his name, Henrietta called him something else.

"Daddy?" She murmured as tears leaked from her eyes.

With both her parents in mind, Henrietta came to the cruelest realization she could possibly have; it wasn't just a nightmare, it actually happened. Her parents were the kindest in Italy, she loved them with all her heart, and those tall men took them away.

They killed them.

But the monsters weren't finished, oh no, the main attraction was Henrietta herself. They chopped off two of her limbs, gouged out one of her eyes, ripped off her clothes, and then….

No.

Having surrendered to unhinged rage and grief, Henrietta suddenly sank her teeth in to the axe wielder's neck. Yanking her head back with all her might, she ripped out her aggressor's throat in a huge spray of blood, making him drop her as he stumbled and gurgled horribly. The crazed cyborg quickly got back on her feet, the taste of the man's blood in her mouth offering a strange comfort as it dripped off her chin.

Not satisfied, Henrietta tackled the chocking murderer and sent him crashing to the ground, climbing on top of him afterwards. She then brought her fist down upon his face, leaving a sickening cracking sound upon impact, another punch followed, then another. For what seemed like an eternity, Henrietta just sat their punching the dying man's face with tears and blood streaming off her own as she let out animalistic shrieks, eventually blood splattered the wall with each punch, followed by bits of bone flying everywhere. His face was no match for the cybernetic strength in her arms.

But no matter how hard she punched, Henrietta couldn't stop herself from crying.

* * *

><p>Jose peaked around the corner at the top of the staircase, noticing movement at the other end of the hall. He left cover and aimed but stopped when he recognized two figures.<p>

"Hilshire, Triela!" He exclaimed as he lowered his weapon. Not seeing any danger, the two handlers closed the distance between them as Triela kept watch behind them.

"Where's Henrietta?" Hilshire asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I sent her after Roberto, they should be…." Jose began to answer but was interrupted by the sound of a little girl crying from a room to their right. Hilshire ordered Triela over to where he was as Jose charged into the room; he recognized that voice. Once inside he aimed his pistol expecting trouble, but gasped when instead he was met with a grisly sight.

Roberto lay on the floor, his head vaguely resembled a rotten tomato, and one could also see what remained of his skull on the inside, along with an eyeball laying not far from the body. What really caught Jose's attention was Henrietta sitting in a corner hugging her legs and crying weakly.

"Henrietta!" Jose called out as he rushed over to his distressed charge. He then knelt down in front of her, noticing that blood coated her chin and hands, and ripped flesh had been caught between her teeth. Henrietta slowly looked up at her handler, shaking uncontrollably.

"Jose?" She whimpered. "Where're Mommy and Daddy?" Jose's heart plummeted as his eyes widened in terror, no way was this happening, it couldn't be.

"I…uh…" Jose stuttered, his worst fears were unfolding right in front of him and he didn't know what to do.

"I want to make sure they're alright!" Henrietta cried desperately. "Where are they?"

The two of them didn't say a word as they just stared at each other, they didn't even notice Triela and Hilshire enter the room. Eventually Henrietta buried her face in her knees and stopped crying, prompting Jose to grab her by the shoulder.

"Hey, Henrietta!" He said to her, starting to panic as he shook her. "Come on, let's get you out of here!" No response from his cyborg, making him shake her even harder.

"Henrietta!" Jose shouted, the desperation in his voice becoming apparent. She still wouldn't budge, not making a peep. He didn't want to believe it, but the worst case scenario had come true.

She remembered.

* * *

><p>Again, reviews would be much appreciated. Especially sense this is where things get serious.<p> 


	6. Smentita

I've made an attempt to kick some punctuation habits pointed out to me, let's see if I'm successful.

* * *

><p>Ch. 6<p>

Smentita

Angelica began to stir in her hospital bed, tired eyes struggled to open as she groaned in discomfort. Eventually she was able to see her handler sitting next to her bed.

"Marco," She squeaked with a weak smile. Marco jumped a bit, not expecting his cyborg to be awake right now.

"Good afternoon, Angelica," He said, looking neutral.

"Afternoon?" the frail cyborg asked as her smile faded.

"That's right, you're in the infirmary; you've been out for a day and a half now," Marco explained. Angelica frowned, disappointed with herself.

"I'm sorry," She apologized meekly, making her handler raise an eyebrow.

"Angelica, do you remember how you got in here?" He asked.

"I fainted again," Angelica answered, looking dejected, "Are you mad at me?"

"No, Angelica," Marco sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "I'm not mad." The cyborg smiled in response.

Marco use to be more enthusiastic about taking care of Angelica, but a combination of her failing memory and increasing devotion to her work made him less and less interested in being her handler. Henrietta had attempted to help patch things up between them during the meteor shower and it seemed to have helped somewhat, but Marco still felt relatively distant from his charge. Angelica, be it due to her failing memory or her conditioning, remained blissfully unaware of the estrangement.

With her door open, something out in the hall caught Angelica's eye. She looked past her handler to get a better view and was met with an odd sight; Henrietta was being escorted down the hall in a wheelchair. Jose followed soon after, all the color in his face seemed to have vanished.

Suddenly, Angelica's last thoughts before fainting came rushing back in force; Henrietta crying in the middle of the night, trying to help her, and having her arm broken for her trouble.

"Henrietta!" Angelica exclaimed as she tried to get out of bed, Marco's firm hand stopped her.

"Hold on, you can't leave yet!" He told her sternly. The cyborg obeyed her handler and laid back down, however Henrietta's wellbeing still weighed on her mind.

"Marco, why's Henrietta here?" Angelica asked, still looking out the door. Marco turned around to get a look himself, his curiosity also piqued.

"I don't know, she just got back from a mission," He answered.

* * *

><p>Henrietta sat motionless in her wheelchair, hands resting in her lap. Her face was completely devoid of expression, save for her eyes being wide open and staring off into nothing. One could look at her and mistaken her for just a well detailed doll, she didn't move a muscle.<p>

Suddenly a light was shone in the cyborg's eye, absolutely no response came from her. The light's owner, Dr. Bianchi, grimaced at her neutral state.

"She's completely catatonic," He observed grimly, "A train could crash through the wall and she wouldn't notice; no amount of external stimuli will make her stir." Jose, who was currently taking a severe mental beating from himself, stood behind him as he looked at his broken charge.

"She asked me about her parents," the handler said as he palmed his forehead, "She remembers everything." The doctor turned to look at him, having lost a significant amount of color in his face.

"Well, uh…." Bianchi stuttered, visibly disturbed by what he just learned, "That would explain her behavior, and the rather….excessive manner in which she disposed of Roberto; she probably mistook him for one the assailants from that day."

Jose lowered his hand from his face and looked at Henrietta, the mere sight of her now filled him with guilt and self-loathing; this was all his fault. If he wasn't so damned set against conditioning her, she wouldn't be like this right now. He foolishly became attached and now his cyborg was paying the price.

"What can we do for her?" Jose asked, though he was already aware of the terrible answer.

"This is worse than I thought it would turn out," Dr. Bianchi explained as he turned his gaze back to Henrietta, "I'm afraid the only way to fix this is a hard reset; we'll have to completely recondition her. She'll forget everything she learned since first becoming a cyborg, including this, but she won't be Henrietta anymore. But, I can't do anything without you're approval."

His gaze still fixed on Henrietta, Jose didn't know what else to do. It would be for the best, who knows what's going on in that messed up head if hers? He was about to agree with the doctor when images flashed in his mind; images of Henrietta smiling, crying, playing with Rico, unwrapping one of the gifts he gave her, all the time he spent with her.

If Jose had her reconditioned all of that would go away, she wouldn't remember him or the other cyborgs. What he was really afraid of was her losing how much she'd grown, talking with her last night revealed how aware and mature she had become. Would the sacrifice be worth it? The handler didn't know the answer and it frustrated him to no end.

"Just….keep Henrietta under observation for now," Jose told the doctor hesitantly, "I'll decide what to do with her later." Bianchi turned to face Jose with a raised eyebrow.

"Jose, I just told you there's nothing else we can do!" He reiterated, "It's not just the trauma of that one day that she's dealing with, it's everything else as well; two worlds have collided in her head and she doesn't know what to do with either of them!"

"If I recall, Henrietta is my cyborg," Jose said sternly as he glared at Bianchi, "As her handler, I say she's kept under observation." Realizing he wasn't going to budge, and a little intimidated by his glare, the doctor relented.

"I'll….prepare a room for her right away," Bianchi said reluctantly. With one last frowning look at his catatonic cyborg, Jose left the room.

* * *

><p>"Was it that bad?" Claes asked as she brought a cup of tea to a dejected looking Triela, who was sitting at the table.<p>

"Henrietta mentioned her parents Claes," Triela answered, seemingly ignoring her tea, "Of course it's bad." Rico was sitting next to her, frowning and looking down.

"She wasn't moving at all," the blonde cyborg murmured worriedly, "She wouldn't even talk to me." Claes took a seat next to Rico.

"Sounds like catatonia," She thought out loud.

"Cata….huh?" Rico asked as she turned her gaze towards Claes.

"Catatonia, in a nutshell it's a state associated with disorders like PTSD or depression in which you lose motor activity and become completely unresponsive to any form of external stimuli," Claes explained. Noticing that Rico still wasn't getting it, she sighed and simplified it. "Essentially, something scared Henrietta so bad she became a living statue."

"You're really bad at nutshelling," Triela commented.

"'Nutshelling' isn't a word," Claes retorted with noticeable annoyance.

"Um, I remember my life before the Agency," Rico interjected, hoping to diffuse the argument before it started, "How come I'm not cana….catter…..a living statue?"

"You were confined to a hospital bed since you were born," Triela explained as she turned to face the other blonde cyborg, "There wasn't anything decent for you to miss, and I'm sure how heavily Jean conditions you has something to do with it too. Henrietta on the other hand lost everything good in her life in an instant, how do you come back from something like that?" The senior cyborg was mostly asking herself this, now that she thought about it.

Rico found the prospect of being a statue disturbing; it sounded way too much like what she used to be. Unable to move, do anything worthwhile, or be of use to anyone. Now Henrietta was experiencing something similar, but what was most alarming to Rico was that she found it difficult to put herself in her friend's shoes; it felt like it'd be easy but no. Of course she's upset that Henrietta's in the infirmary, she's her friend, right? So why was it so hard to empathize with her situation?

"Is Henrietta going to be okay?" Rico asked in a desperate attempt to ignore her apathy. The other two cyborgs looked at her like deer in headlights; neither of them knew what to say. Triela attempted to say something but stuttered, Claes just looked down and avoided eye contact. Dissatisfied, Rico frowned and got up to leave her fellow cyborgs feeling apologetic.

On her way back to her room, Rico worried for her distressed bunkmate, and for her own indifference towards her situation. She wanted to feel what Henrietta was feeling, but for some reason couldn't. Not knowing why only made her more worried.

Maybe visiting her would offer some clarity, Rico thought.

* * *

><p>Jose closed the door to his room behind him and leaned against it, staring at the floor in utter defeat. After a few seconds he banged his head back on the door with a frustrated grunt, then marched over to his desk and had a seat. Instinctively, the handler opened a drawer containing a pack of cigarettes, but stopped himself as he reached for it. For a moment all he did was stare at the pack and grit his teeth as he mentally wrestled with himself, after which he slammed the drawer shut, laid his head on the desk, and grabbed his hair.<p>

Think of something, Jose thought, anything!

But nothing came to mind, all except Henrietta's blank stare taunting him for his failure and Bianchi's words reminding him of what he got his cyborg into. Neither would go away, they just kept beating on him, punishing him. As long as these thoughts ravaged him, Jose wouldn't be able to think of a way to help Henrietta.

"Stop it," the handler murmured angrily.

* * *

><p>"I at least hope you found something useful in there," Lorenzo told Jean as he glanced at the post mission report on his desk. Jean straitened his tie and cleared his throat.<p>

"We were able to find Roberto's personal laptop," the handler explained, "I'll have the techs take a look at it."

"Very good," the chief said with a sigh, "But there's still the Henrietta problem; we were lucky that Roberto was the only one around when she lost control."

"Jose is having her kept in the infirmary until further notice," Jean said with barley hidden contempt, "If you ask me he's just delaying the inevitable."

"You know how attached to her he is," Lorenzo pointed out as his gaze lowered.

"That's the problem; he's too emotionally involved to make the right decisions, it'd be best for everyone if he would just have her reconditioned!" Jean ranted as he raised his voice a little, making Lorenzo raise an eyebrow. He wondered what he meant by "for everyone", but decided to call attention to something else.

"You know, you've been giving Jose a much harder time than usual since the two of you got back from Sicily," the chief stated observantly, "Did something happen during that little vacation?"

Jean had been caught off guard, but he managed to maintain his composure in the face of his superior's line of questioning.

"With all due respect sir, what happens on my personal time is my own business," the handler answered, now mindful of his tone.

"If you say so," Lorenzo relented as he leaned back in his seat, "But I suggest you either tend to it or keep it under control; I won't have any infighting in this agency, is that clear?"

"Crystal, sir."

"Good, that'll be all Jean."

Jean let himself out and just stood in the hallway, thinking about the trip that Lorenzo mentioned. While in Sicily, Jose let Henrietta wear a certain dress Jean thought wasn't appropriate to let her have; it use to belong to someone else.

"Enrica," Jean muttered to himself.


	7. Chiarezza

Ch. 7

Chiarezza

Cloudy skies did nothing to alleviate Claes' concern as she tended to her garden, though it was warmer than yesterday she still heard murmurs about snow later in the month. The bespectacled cyborg didn't like it but these flowers would have to be harvested early; she'd be damned before letting snow claim her babies. Though she could save these flowers, she wasn't looking forward to not being able to garden in the coming weeks.

Unlike the other cyborgs Claes didn't have a handler, instead she was a test subject for the cyborg engineers. Any new implants were used on Claes before the others got the treatment, though there were instances of implants not working properly and her leaving the lab swimming in pain killers. They also used her to find ways to stall cyborg deterioration, though that usually took a backseat to making cyborgs more lethal, hence the distinct lack of progress.

Besides that, Claes had an abundance of free time at the agency; she could read her books, play the piano, wander around the agency grounds at her leisure, and so on. What she really enjoyed was taking care of her garden; it was something to focus on, to plan for in advance, and to take care of. Now that it was going to snow, she wasn't sure what she was going to do with herself during hours usually spent gardening. Talk with Triela if she's around? Then again, Claes already had enough of that to begin with, sometimes a little too much now that she thought about it. The others would probably be training with their handlers most of the time.

Claes was sure she had a handler at some point, but couldn't recall; she suspected something happened to him and the agency made her forget him, if he even existed. But he must have; who else would have left all those books behind for her? It was up to the handlers to decide if their cyborgs received any gifts, the agency itself couldn't care less beyond their ability to kill without remorse. Claes decided to keep it to herself though, her life was complete enough as is. It wasn't like she could ask about this mystery handler anyway; the staff would just deny everything and the other cyborgs probably had their memories of him wiped clean, she could only imagine how livid Jose must have been when they did it to Henrietta.

Suddenly reminded of Henrietta's current situation, Claes paused her work and sighed in frustration; she was having such a good morning until now. For some reason the thought of Henrietta being reconditioned made her feel sick, it would be the best thing for her but the mere thought of it left a bad taste in her mouth. Claes always found Henrietta's rather intense affection for Jose to be a little strange, in fact she almost wished it was purely due to conditioning that her younger friend admired her handler so much.

But to see it go….

The bespectacled cyborg turned around as she wiped sweat off her forehead, afterwards something caught her eye; Henrietta staring out the window of her hospital room. For a few seconds, all Claes did was stare back at the catatonic cyborg, thinking they must have moved her there so she wasn't just staring at a wall.

Henrietta's blank stare started doing something to Claes, something she didn't recognize or like, eventually she noticed her breathing becoming more audible. The gardener began wondering if Henrietta was staring at her specifically, and how long was she going to keep doing it. Eventually, Claes turned back around to water her flowers, trying desperately to ignore that accursed stare. She closed her eyes and focused on the sound of water dripping on soil, thought about the book she was in the middle of. But Claes could still feel Henrietta's blank gaze fixed on her, could still see it in her mind, never blinking or looking away.

"Stop it!" Claes suddenly screamed as she tossed her watering can aside and spun back around.

To her surprise, Henrietta wasn't there anymore; someone must have moved her. Noticing that she was hyperventilating slightly, Claes gasped and quickly checked to see if anyone was around. Finding nobody, she brought her fingers to her temples and took deep breaths.

Soon her anxiety had been replaced by guilt; Henrietta didn't deserve to be yelled at. This was worsened by the realization that she was still wearing her glasses; Claes made a promise to someone that she'd be gentle whenever she had her glasses on, but couldn't remember who. Frustrated with herself, Claes kicked her watering can with an angry grunt and started making her way back inside.

* * *

><p>Taking a seat next to Henrietta's hospital bed, Jose just looked at her as the doctors left. They'd just finished moving her from her wheelchair to her bed, she still was just sitting there with her hands in her lap. This was all wrong, whenever they met Henrietta would always greet her handler with admiration and a shy smile, not this time. Still, Jose managed a smile despite his discomfort.<p>

"Hey Henrietta," he greeted warmly like he always did with her, "did you get a good night's sleep?"

As expected he got no response, though the formality was more for his ease than hers. Jose scooted his chair closer to the bed so he was sitting side by side with his broken charge.

"I brought your photo album," the handler said as he presented said album, "I thought you and I could have a look at it."

Jose laid the album in her lap and flipped through the pages, discovering how neatly Henrietta organized her photos, she even dated each one. Though a little put off by how often he showed up in the collection, the handler was relieved to see that he wasn't all she put in here. There were also pictures of the other cyborgs, a few selfies, or just something she thought was pretty.

"Hey, look at this one," Jose pointed out to a photo of Triela having accidently spilt hot tea on herself, "Does Triela know you took this yet? I bet Claes would use it for blackmail!"

Still no response from Henrietta, Jose's smile weakened some but remained, so he moved on to another photo.

"How about this one?" he pointed to a photo of him and Henrietta on a hill overlooking Rome at night, "If I recall, you said that was your new favorite place to have picnics, we can go there again if you want."

Nothing, Henrietta didn't even blink. Disheartened, Jose's smile faded as he looked down, catching a glimpse of his cyborg in the photos. The smiling little girl in the photos had been replaced by a depressing, creepily doll like, and pathetic child who wanted nothing to do with the world anymore. Jose was scared that these photos would be all that was left of the Henrietta he raised, memories of someone who no longer existed.

Jose donned a subtle scowl as he got up to leave; right now all he wanted was to get away from this reminder of the mistakes he made.

* * *

><p>Rico scanned Section 2's offices for any sign of her blond handler, finally noticing him she started approaching but hesitated; she wondered if he would say yes to her request. Jean wasn't exactly keen on paying attention to his cyborg's life outside of killing terrorists, but he didn't actively forbid her from extra things either, so Rico had hope of him saying yes. She took a deep breath as she finally got the courage to go ask him.<p>

"Um…Jean?" Rico inquired, standing behind him as he worked on his computer.

"What is it Rico?" Jean asked without turning to face her. The cyborg started fidgeting with her hands and stared at the floor.

"You know I don't ask for much."

"Get to the point," Jean interrupted coldly, making Rico jump a little and look back up at him.

"Can I….uh, may I have permission to visit Henrietta in the infirmary, please?" she requested, correcting her grammar. Jean stopped typing, prompting a few seconds of awkward silence, Rico was about to ask if something was wrong when he broke the silence first.

"What for?" He asked, "I hear she doesn't exactly have much to say these days."

"Just to see her, Triela's going too," Rico answered. Her real reasons for wanting to see her were far more personal, but she knew Jean didn't like being bothered with such things.

Another few seconds of silence ensued, followed by Jean writing on something. Thinking that he was ignoring her, Rico frowned and looked at the floor as she started leaving. Suddenly she was stopped by her handler.

"Here, take this," he said as he handed her a slip with his name on it, "Show it to the lady at the front desk and they'll let you in." Rico took the slip with eyes wide in surprise, soon after a huge smile appeared on her face.

"Thank you Jean!" she said with enthusiasm.

* * *

><p>Antica Enoteca had very few patrons today, a certain self-loathing handler was thankful for the quiet that came with it. Jose took another gulp from his drink and sighed, taking a few seconds to check if he was still sober enough to care about what happened to Henrietta.<p>

He concluded he needed more drinks.

Jose thought about his cyborg as he waited for his next order, he just didn't know what to do next. She didn't care about her precious photo album, nor for the company of her dear handler. Jose was out of ideas, there was only one thing left to do for her. But the old Henrietta showed up in his mind again, smiling as she listened to a story he was telling her, sulking after Rico accidently broke the kaleidoscope he gave her, blushing as Jose held her hand on a walk. All of these thoughts kept begging him not to do what needed to be done.

Jose was thankful when his next glass of magical wine arrived to make them go away.

* * *

><p>"Hey Claes, you feeling alright?" Triela asked as she looked at her collection of teddy bears, "You've been more quiet than usual since you went gardening this morning."<p>

"It's just one of those days, Triela," Claes answered from the table, staring at her tea.

"If you say so," Triela relented after picking up one of her bears.

"What were you doing just now?"

"Picking out a teddy bear to give to Henrietta when I visit her," Triela said as she took a seat across from her bespectacled bunkmate, "I figure she could use the company."

"You'd think Jose would give her plenty of that with how much he mollycoddles her," Claes commented before taking a sip of her tea. Triela raised an eyebrow in response to her remark.

"He's been gone for an hour now, he probably wants to be alone," the senior cyborg explained with concern for her bookworm friend, "Why the attitude all of a sudden, are you sure you're okay?"

Claes didn't answer, instead she just looked down. Triela always saw her as a little unsociable, but not particularly snappy. What she just said about Jose was uncharacteristically nasty of her, and it worried the pigtailed cyborg.

"You know, Rico got permission from Jean to visit Henrietta earlier," Triela explained after putting on a smile, "How about you come with us to see her?"

"No!" Claes suddenly yelled as her gaze snapped upward, making Triela jump a little and raise her eyebrow again. Realizing what she just did, Claes avoided eye contact. "Uh….I already made plans to see Angelica now that she's awake."

Triela was about to say something when a knock at the door interrupted her.

"Hey Triela, its Rico!" The visitor said from the other side, "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, let's go," Triela answered as she got up to leave. Before opening the door however, she turned to Claes looking worried. "You and I are having a talk later."

After her bunkmate left, Claes laid her head on the table.

* * *

><p>"I wish I had something to bring Henrietta," Rico said sadly as she and Triela were on their way to the aforementioned cyborg's room, having already checked in at the front desk.<p>

"I'm sure she'll be happy with just your company, you two are practically sisters!" Triela reassured the younger cyborg with a soft smile, "Besides; even though Jose showers her with gifts, she's not one to be bought."

Rico smiled, feeling a little better, though she remembered she was doing this to learn something too. Finally reaching their destination, the pair made their way inside and were met with a depressing sight; the room was decidedly dull and gloomy, with Henrietta's pink pajamas being the only remotely "cheery" looking thing in sight, though the catatonic child wearing them greatly diminished their bright presence. Triela immediately walked in, not noticing Rico hesitating behind her.

"Hey Henrietta," she greeted quietly as she approached her friend's bed, "Rico and I…..Rico?" She turned around and found no trace of Henrietta's bunkmate.

Out in the hallway, Rico leaned against the wall as her breathing raised in volume and sweat dotted her synthetic skin. A completely gray room, a patient who can't move at all, it was all way too familiar to the small cyborg. Was this why she had trouble relating to Henrietta? It scared her? Rico was far too disturbed to confirm such theories.

Someone gently grabbed her wrist, pulling Rico from her thoughts and making her look at her visitor; Triela.

"Are you okay Rico?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, "You look pale!"

"I…uh…." Rico didn't know what to say. Triela's face softened when she noticed Rico's perspiration.

"I know it looks scary, considering the circumstances," the pigtailed cyborg explained quietly as her hand moved from Rico's wrist to her shoulder, "But Henrietta needs you right now, can you be brave for her?"

Now plagued with mind numbing guilt, Rico looked down and frowned.

"Okay," she said meekly.

Triela gently pushed Rico inside, the smaller cyborg was still hesitant and stopped every so often on their way to the bed, prompting the taller one to shove her slightly. Eventually Rico mustered the courage to move on her own, and the two of them took seats on opposite sides of Henrietta. A few seconds of awkward silence followed, Rico had her head down as she waited for Triela to say something.

A look up revealed that Triela was staring right at her, when Rico made eye contact with her she nodded her head towards Henrietta; she wanted Rico to speak first. The blonde girl looked back down briefly and started fidgeting with her hands, before looking up at Henrietta with a weak smile.

"Um…hi, Henrietta," Rico greeted shyly, "How are you feeling….uh…." She realized it was a stupid question and started fumbling with her words.

"Hey Rico, if I recall you saved Jose during the last mission," Triela pointed out, changing the subject for her struggling compatriot.

"Yeah!" Rico agreed, silently thanking Triela as she looked back at the catatonic cyborg, "I knew you'd be upset if anything happened to Jose, so I kept him safe for you! Jean said I did a good job for killing a lot of bad guys. I'm sorry I couldn't cover you though; I couldn't see you on the third floor and…."

Henrietta's blank expression made it difficult for Rico to carry on her one sided conversation, she was use to her bunkmate reacting to her stories; giggling, smiling, even just a nod would do. Eventually Rico gave up talking, clearly it wasn't doing anything for Henrietta. With a frown she reached for her surrogate sister's hand and gently grabbed it, thinking physical contact would make her stir. Nope, Rico even tried pulling a bit but not a muscle of hers budged.

"Henrietta," Rico pleaded, her voice cracked a bit. She was interrupted by Triela gently pushing her hand away.

"It's okay Rico," she said softly. Rico withdrew and slouched in her seat, eyes still fixed on her frozen bunkmate. Triela scooted closer to Henrietta, it was her turn.

"Hey Henrietta," the senior cyborg greeted with an almost motherly voice, "I don't know if you can hear us or not, but we're all really worried about you. It isn't the same not having you around."

Henrietta still didn't respond, making her smile fade, seeing Rico sink in her seat made it even worse. Triela sighed quietly, deciding that only one cyborg should be allowed to have problems at a time. Being the oldest made her feel responsible for the wellbeing of the other cyborgs, even though that was the handlers' job. So whenever she saw one of them in pain, scared, or just not having a good day, she took it upon herself to make things better for them. Needless to say, Triela felt a little overwhelmed right now, but decided to focus on the girl in the direst need.

"I know how much you hate being lonely, so I brought Augustus to keep you company," Triela said to Henrietta, referring to the teddy bear she brought, "Whenever you're scared, just hug him as tightly as you can." The pigtailed girl was a little too old to be comforted by such things, but she knew Henrietta would appreciate it, if she were conscious anyway.

Triela carefully placed her gift in Henrietta's lap, letting the bear leaned against her chest. Still not getting a response, her gaze joined Rico's on the floor. When she looked up to say something, an alarming sight met her eyes.

Henrietta moved.

She slowly moved her arms around the teddy bear and held it close to her, making the other two cyborgs immediately perk up and stare at her. For a few seconds no one said anything, then the catatonic cyborg surprised them again and spoke.

"Where's Jose?" Henrietta asked in a monotone voice, still staring ahead into nothing. Rico and Triela jumped in response as their eyes widened; they most certainly were not expecting this. "He was just here, where is he? I'm scared."

The other two girls just stared at her, waiting for her to do or say something else. After about a minute of silence, Rico couldn't sit still, so she jumped up and grabbed her bunkmate's shoulder.

"Henrietta?" she inquired desperately, "Hey!" No response, the brunette cyborg returned to her trance.

Triela just stared as Rico tried getting more out of Henrietta, processing what she just saw. Henrietta knew Jose was here earlier, she's terrified and wants to see him. So it only stands to reason…

Rico only noticed that Triela was leaving when she was right at the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" she asked, briefly pausing her interrogation of her catatonic bunkmate.

"To find Hilshire!" Triela answered as she vanished out in the hallway. In truth what she really needed was a ride into town; her real objective was someone in Rome, someone who had to be here right now.

She had to find Jose.

* * *

><p>"You sure he's in there?" Triela asked as she and Hilshire looked at the entrance to Antica Enoteca, it was an unassuming hangout on Via della Croce.<p>

"Jean did say Jose went out for a drink, he must be in a bad way if he's not answering his phone," Hilshire replied, "Can't say I blame him, considering the circumstances." The fratello walked on in, ignoring strange looks from people sitting at the tables near the entrance.

Once inside, Triela quickly scanned the wine bar for Henrietta's handler, after a couple seconds she noticed him hunched over the counter in his seat, holding a glass of wine in his hand. Her brow furrowed in determination, Triela marched over to Jose. Upon her arrival however, the bartender caught her attention.

"Excuse me missy, you look way too young to…." He was interrupted by Hilshire showing him his government credentials.

"I think you can make an exception," the handler said with a scowl, "Just this once." The bartender immediately relented with eyes widened in fear, and promptly went to check on other patrons.

"Now why did you go and do that for?" Jose asked with a wry smile, "He and I were having a pleasant conversation."

"We came to get you Jose," Hilshire informed his fellow handler sternly.

"Henrietta needs you!" Triela explained urgently.

"Henrietta always needs me, I've let her become quite the emotional wreck, haven't I?" Jose's smiled faded as he talked, clearly he had a bit to drink, "But, that's about to change soon."

"What?" Hilshire inquired with widened eyes, "Jose, you don't mean…."

"What else is there? Nothing I do gets through to her, I can't help her anymore. Nobody can."

"Wait a second!" Triela interjected, "You don't need to have Henrietta reconditioned! She…."

"Hilshire, you really need to increase your cyborg's conditioning." Jose interrupted coldly, ignoring the pigtailed cyborg, "Otherwise, she could end up like mine. I know you like to put the brakes on conditioning like I use to."

Triela stared at the drunken handler with her mouth agape, she could not believe what she just heard. Jose was supposed to be a compassionate and empathetic sort, just who the hell was this guy taking his place?

"Now hold on!" Hilshire shouted as he shoved Triela out of the way, unable to hide his indignation, "Are you really willing to throw away everything the two of you have been through!?"

"Makes no difference to her, not anymore at least." Jose took another sip of his drink.

"You don't know that for sure!"

As the two handlers argued, they failed to notice Triela pacing back and forth behind them. Already annoyed by Jose's attitude and Hilshire shoving her, the cyborg's ire kept rising with each syllable they spoke. She wanted to do something, but just thinking about it made her nauseous; it was something she had been conditioned not to do. This combined with her anger made her start violently breathing through her nose, growing louder as she paced. The cyborg was about to call it quits on her urge, but Jose just had to utter that blasted statement.

"As it turns out, nothing I did for her was worth it."

Triela suddenly shoved past her handler, grabbed Jose by the collar of his shirt, and punched him in the face. The drunken handler was knocked out of his seat, resulting in him crashing to the ground with a loud thud.

Dazed from both the alcohol and the blow he just took, Jose stared up at the ceiling as blood dripped out from his nose. Eventually he found the strength to prop himself up with his arms, after which he noticed that he wasn't the only one not having a good time. Triela doubled over with her hands on her belly as she puked on the floor with a sickening gagging sound, her handler looked between her and his colleague as he struggled to decide who he should help.

Jose figured it was due to her insidious conditioning that Triela was expelling her lunch, her brainwashed mind couldn't fathom the idea of harming a member of the Social Welfare Agency and it made her sick, this was as much a punishment for her as it was for him. After she was finished, Triela leaned on the bar counter and wiped her mouth with her sleeve as she struggled to catch her breath. Hilshire reached out for her but she shrugged him off before stepping forward, stumbling almost us much as some of the establishment's more overindulgent patrons. Despite her dizziness, Triela managed to maintain an angry glare as she stood over Jose.

"Not worth it?" she repeated over her own raspy breathing, "Do you know how often she talks about you? I can't even begin to count the number of times Henrietta giggled after coming back from spending time with you! I don't see Rico doing that, or Angelica, hell Hilshire and I get along but even I don't go all…." She was interrupted by a pained grunt as she held her stomach and collapsed next to Jose, though she was able to prop herself up with her other arm.

"I know how much Henrietta looks up to me," Jose muttered through clenched teeth as his head throbbed, "But it's…"

"She spoke."

"…..What?" He turned to face the nauseous cyborg, who only had one narrow eye open as she resisted the urge to vomit again.

"Rico and I visited Henrietta," Triela explained with a cough, "She mentioned you visiting her earlier, she's scared out of her mind and she needs her handler!" Unable to speak anymore, the only sounds that came out of her mouth were those of coughing and wheezing.

Jose fought through his stupor induced by wine and Triela's punch as he processed what he just learned; Henrietta was aware of him visiting her. How much else did she notice in her current state? If she could hear what he was saying, then maybe…..

His thoughts were interrupted by seeing Hilshire help up his woozy cyborg, prompting him to clumsily get back on his feet too. Triela leaned against her handler as she tried to just will away her nausea, with no success.

"You okay?" Hilshire asked Jose as the latter used one of the bar chairs for support.

"I am now," Jose answered as he grabbed a napkin from the counter to wipe blood off his face, "Can't say I didn't deserve that."

His mind clear, well as clear as a mind could be after the drinks he had, Jose thought about what he could do for Henrietta now that he knew she acknowledged his presence. Eventually he thought back to the time he first saw Henrietta in the hospital and the Elsa investigation as Dr. Bianchi's words came to mind.

"Two worlds, huh?" Jose muttered to himself as a plan came together in his head.

"So what happens now?" Hilshire asked, making his colleague turn to face him.

"I think it's time we let Henrietta decide."


	8. La scelta

Ch. 8

La scelta

It had been a full day since Triela and Hilshire confronted Jose, plenty of time for the fratello to fret over what he planned to do with Henrietta. It was insane, they hoped the handler only thought of it due to intoxication but what was happening right now favored the contrary. The Hilshire/Triela fratello, Jean/Rico fratello, and Claes all took seats outside of Dr. Bianchi's office, even Marco caved and wheeled Angelica out to the scene. By now they all knew what was about to happen, and not a single one of them wasn't plagued by racing thoughts.

Triela's chin rested in her hands as she regretted ever getting Jose; if anything happened to Henrietta it would be her fault, sure it's Jose's idea but she was the catalyst. The pigtailed cyborg wanted to help her catatonic friend, so she prayed to every deity she studied in Hilshire's classes that she didn't just make a grievous mistake.

Hilshire couldn't believe how close Jose came to giving up, granted what he was about to do wasn't any less alarming but it made him think about something; Triela's conditioning. Hers was pretty lax too, what would he do if Triela went past the point of no return? Would he fare any better than Jose? She has been around for a while now…..

Rico was of course frightened for her friend, but found some kind of comfort in the fact that no matter what happened next Henrietta wouldn't be a statue anymore. Perhaps it was a little selfish to see it that way, but Rico didn't know how else to make this situation any less scary. She started staring at the floor but remembered that Jean was standing right next to her, so she straitened back up in her seat.

Jean was the only one standing up, he couldn't have cared less what happened to Henrietta but his brother's actions still worried him. After everything Jose invested in his cyborg, much to Jean's chagrin after he learned why, who knows what he would do next if this went south? Though it could be for the better, take away Henrietta and he won't have a doll to play dress up with anymore. Jean shook his head wondering if those were Enrica's words or his if there was any difference.

The decaying Angelica had to be reminded what was going on, so her anxiety was horrifically fresh. If she wasn't confined to her wheelchair she'd be pacing back and forth right now. Images of Henrietta freaking out that night made her want to move but all she could do was fidget with her hands.

Marco sat with his arms crossed, wondering what he'd have to do if Angelica didn't take this well. With her mind as it is he'd probably have to increase her conditioning dosages if she became too upset, and who knows what that would do to her with her dependency and all.

Claes hugged herself and avoided eye contact with everyone else present. Still haunted by what she said to Henrietta she wanted to at least apologize to her before Jose did his thing, but that damnable stare kept her from doing so. If Claes didn't act now she just knew she'd regret it, assuming the Agency would let her remember, but she just couldn't bring herself to utter a single syllable to the catatonic cyborg.

Everyone's frantic thinking was interrupted by the squeaking of a wheelchair heading their way. Around the corner came Jose pushing a wheelchair bound Henrietta, who was still hugging the teddy bear Triela gave her. Jose avoided eye contact with anyone as he passed them, his eyebrows were slightly furrowed as he kept his eyes on Dr. Bianchi's office door. Henrietta of course kept staring ahead and paid no mind to the reactions of those she passed by.

Everyone kept their eyes on her, some with concern and others with anxiety. The infernal squeaking of her wheelchair perfectly complemented her doll-like image, effectively sending chills down the spines of handlers and cyborgs alike. Nobody noticed Claes suddenly hugging her legs when the catatonic cyborg passed her. Rico stood up when Henrietta got close to her but was stopped by Jean.

"Sit," he ordered sternly. She complied silently but kept staring at her bunkmate with a worried frown.

After what seemed like eons Jose made it into Bianchi's office, leaving everyone present wondering if that would be the last they ever saw of Henrietta.

* * *

><p>Jose closed the door behind him. Waiting for him was Dr. Bianchi, who had just finished setting up a small table and chair in the middle of the room. The handler positioned Henrietta at the table and across from the chair.<p>

Bianchi gave Jose a solemn look which the handler answered with a stern glare; there was no changing his mind. The doctor's serious façade gave way to a defeated sigh once he laid eyes on the pathetic little girl in the wheelchair, he then gave one last glance at Jose before letting himself out.

Alone with Henrietta, Jose's glare softened away as he gently patted her head and inhaled through his nose, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do.

"Okay," he murmured under his exhale.

Jose then made his way around the small table and took a seat across from Henrietta. Before speaking he took a second to compare this scene to the first time Henrietta woke up after being made into a cyborg; when he walked in and greeted her they stared at each other for a few awkward seconds of silence before he introduced himself, much like what was going on right now.

"Henrietta," Jose finally said, almost whispering, "I'm sure by now you remember almost everything."

He paused, swearing he noticed Henrietta's eyes move. Another few seconds of silence ensued before he continued.

"I assume you also remember staying in the hospital after….what happened to you," Jose explained, he silently questioned the viability of the euphemism he just used, "You told the doctors that you wanted to die."

Just like when he first introduced himself to her, Jose laid a SIG pistol on the table. It was Henrietta's.

"If that's still true…." He trailed off as his earlier observation confirmed itself, her eyes moved again, this time they traveled downward towards the gun on the table. Jose didn't seem surprised by this. For a while all Henrietta did was stare at her sidearm, the way Triela's teddy bear peeked over the table from her lap make it look as if it was staring at the weapon too.

Suddenly one of her fingers twitched, then another, eventually her hand relinquished its grasp on the bear and her arm slowly extended outward. She delicately grabbed the gun's grip as if it were made of glass and lifted it up in front of her at a snail's pace, the weapon's chrome surface gleamed as it moved under the light hanging above the table.

As she stared at it, Henrietta slid her thumb over the bolt securing her SIG's grip panel. Eventually she held the barrel with her other hand and hesitantly pointed it at her left eye. A cyborg's primary weakness was their eyes; they weren't super reinforced like the rest of their body. A bullet right through the eye would bring an end to her already fleeting existence.

Jose's face obtained a noticeable gloom; she still wanted it. His cyborg's finger wrapped itself around the trigger and prepared to put a stop to it all right here. All it would take was a twitch and Henrietta would be no more.

However, Jose's brows furrowed before he instigated the next part of his plan.

"Before you go, do you remember the Elsa investigation?" he asked. Henrietta's finger had stopped just short of pulling the trigger. "We were sent away after the incident, but you were able to figure out what happened."

His cyborg didn't make a noise.

"Elsa's handler, Lauro, wasn't good to her so she killed him and then herself," Jose continued, "You put it all together because you'd do the same, but only if I didn't care for you."

He then sat up straight and spread his arms out.

"Well, here I am!" Jose announced, "So what's it going to be?"

After a few grueling seconds of silence, a whimper escaped Henrietta as her hands started shaking.

* * *

><p>Time seemed to slow down for everyone waiting outside. Unease tainted the air and suffocated everyone to the point where thinking of something irrelevant to the situation made them queasy. As if they weren't uncomfortable enough, fatigue set in as usual curfews were missed. Heads drooped and eyelids struggled to stay open.<p>

The loud crack of a gunshot changed that.

Triela's eyes snapped wide open and her mouth hung agape as she stared at the floor in disbelief. Everyone else had similar reactions, though Jean merely closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose. After that, nothing. Nobody even breathed.

A sudden hiccup from Angelica finally broke the silence, followed by a sniff. Eventually sharp gasps and whimpering escaped her. The decaying cyborg covered her eyes in a vain attempt to stop tears from flowing as she started full on sobbing. A solemn looking Marco noticed this and pulled a bag of pills from his pocket, but when he presented it to Angelica she suddenly slapped the bag out of his hand, sending her medication scattering all over the floor making sounds akin to that of marbles.

This brought Triela out of her stupor. She looked around and noticed Claes burying her face in her knees, trained eyes would notice her shivering. Then Triela turned to look at Hilshire, who was now glaring and gritting his teeth.

"Well, that's that," Jean coldly claimed as began to leave, "Let's go Rico."

After taking a few steps ne noticed his cyborg still in her seat, all she did was stare at the floor as her mouth hung open. Rico's best friend was gone, and she didn't know how to react.

"Rico!" Jean hissed as he marched back to her, "It's time to go!"

Still no response. Jean then raised his arm up and brought the back of his hand down on her face, a deafening snap was heard on impact and blood splattered on the floor. Rico didn't seem to notice as blood seeped from her mouth.

Triela looked away. Something horrible came to her attention, she wasn't crying. Why? A fellow cyborg, no, a friend just up and died. Isn't that what you do when someone you know dies? Cry? So why wasn't she shedding any tears like Angelica? This was just like Pinocchio, Triela thought. She didn't feel much, not a damn thing!

Between her alien apathy, Jean shouting, and Angelica crying, Triela began to feel like her senses were being overloaded. With being unable to vent this information via tears, Triela covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. But her enhanced hearing could still pick it all up. There was no hiding from the chaos.

"Please stop," she pleaded quietly.

As if reality suddenly became nice enough to show mercy to its inhabitants for once, the noise stopped. After a few painfully silent seconds Triela opened her eyes to investigate. Strangely, Angelica stopped crying, instead she stared at Bianchi's office in complete awe. Marco mimicked her state almost perfectly.

Rico seemed to have snapped out of her trance, though she still paid no mind to her bleeding lip. Like Angelica, the blonde cyborg stared at Bianchi's office. Triela could have sworn she saw her eyes becoming moist. Even the usually stoic Jean seemed surprised at whatever he was looking at.

Claes had finally lifted her head up. She had her hands over her mouth as, like everyone else, stared at the door. Her puffy eyes told Triela she'd been shedding tears.

Hilshire's mouth was agape as he stared, Triela followed his gaze and was met with a startling sight. The door to Bianchi's office was open, standing in it was a drained looking Jose. She could barely make out his features with him standing right in front of the light coming from the office.

And standing right in front of him, on her own two feet, was Henrietta.

Her eyes were barley open, hinting at exhaustion. Despite this a weak smile could be seen on her face. She was still holding on to the teddy bear Triela gave her. Henrietta started approaching the aforementioned cyborg, the sounds of her slippers tapping the floor broke the deafening silence. After finally reaching her they just stared at each other for a few seconds.

Triela couldn't believe it. Her eyes widened while Henrietta's remained mellow. Eventually the younger cyborg held her teddy bear out in front of her, prompting the older one to flinch after seeing her move suddenly. Triela carefully grasped the stuffed animal as if it were a priceless and fragile museum piece, then slowly pulled it away from Henrietta with unnoticeably shaking hands.

After that awkward little exchange, Jose let his hand rest on Henrietta's shoulder as a weak and tired smile made its way on his face.

"Let's go," He told her quietly.

"Okay," his cyborg replied with the same volume.

The fratello started sluggishly making its way down the hall, just like when they arrived everyone kept their eyes on them as they walked by. Once they passed everyone Rico abandoned her seat and took a few steps forward but stopped. She just stood and stared in awe as Jose and Henrietta left the scene. Jean was way too preoccupied with his own bemusement to order her back to his side.

Triela's head snapped up as a realization came to mind. She sprang up from her seat and dashed towards Bianchi's office, not noticing that she was hugging her teddy bear. A quick peek inside revealed a gun on the table, its clip lying spent not far from it. Triela recognized it as Henrietta's sidearm. A glance upward revealed a bullet hole high up on the wall.

The pigtailed cyborg collapsed on her knees. Everything she saw in there confirmed her realization, prompting her to announce it with a surprisingly shaky voice.

"He knew she'd miss."

Triela let out a sharp gasp as she suddenly felt a dull yet noticeable pain in her chest. Another gasp followed, this time accompanied by squinting and moist eyes. More were heard as she gritted her teeth as well. The arrival of tears made her aware of what the pain in her chest was.

Relief.

Relief from all that noise from before, relief from that terrifying apathy keeping her from venting the accumulated ugliness she felt, and relief that Henrietta was alive. Triela held on to the feeling desperately, the gloriously painful feeling that made her feel more alive than any bullet wound or lady cramp.

"He knew she'd miss!" she repeated before squeezing her eyes shut and being overtaken by borderline hysterical sobbing.

"Triela!" Hilshire called to her as he got up and ran to her side. He then knelt down and rested a hand on his crying cyborg's shoulder.

"He knew she'd miss!" Triela practically screamed as she went limp against her handler, prompting him to cradle her.

"It's okay," Hilshire whispered with a solemn look.

"He knew she'd miss, Hil….Hilshire….." Triela managed to whimper between sobs.

For a good while, the halls of the Agency compound echoed with the formerly suppressed sorrow and joy of a crying child. Such a sound served as a herald for Henrietta's survival.

* * *

><p>Jose laid hunched over his desk with his head resting on his arms. Eventually he sat up, leaned back, and let out a long sigh. To his right, Henrietta laid tucked under the covers of his bed with her back turned to him, unkempt brunette hair clung to his pillow like webbing.<p>

"Henrietta, are you still awake?" the handler asked quietly as he turned to face her.

"Yes," the cyborg answered meekly. Jose almost didn't hear her.

"How do you feel?" he inquired. Henrietta fell silent for a few seconds as she shifted a little in her handler's bed. Eventually she answered with a voice so quiet that Jose had to strain in order to listen.

"I don't know."

Jose wanted to ask her so much more. How much does she remember? What were her parents like? Does she still want to kill herself? But he figured such questions would have to wait for a multitude of reasons. Right now he had to think of what was best for his broken charge.

"I want you to stay in the infirmary for a little while longer," he explained as he leaned on his desk, "You're still very sick Henrietta."

Understatement of the century, Jose thought.

Henrietta pulled the covers slightly over her face. She didn't want to be useless to her precious Jose but he was right, her mood darkened every time her parents came to mind and she didn't even want to think about what happened. In the state she was in she wasn't any good to anybody, much less Jose.

"Okay," the child finally relented.

Jose looked down at his desk and savored every last drop of relief. He knew the worst had yet to come, no way was this going to be easy. But he owed her the effort, even though she wasn't going to live long enough to put anything he does for her to use other than killing terrorists.

Henrietta was still an asset of the S.W.A., there was no changing that. But she was Jose's cyborg, his responsibility, his sister. That wasn't changing either.

"Jose?" Henrietta suddenly inquired, pulling her handler from his thoughts and making him look at her.

"Yeah?" Jose asked back.

"Please don't make me forget what happened," she requested.

The handler was taken aback by her words, he wasn't going to anyway but to hear her actually ask it...what prompted this?

"It's scary and I hate thinking about it, but I want to remember," Henrietta explained as her head slightly ventured out from under the comforter, "It makes me worry about you."

"Me?" Jose asked her, wondering where in the world she was going with this.

"We're all here because something horrible happened to us, me and the other girls I mean," the cyborg continued. "Rico was born sick, Angelica's parents tried to kill her, and…you know what happened to me. I never noticed it before, I just assumed I always lived here but I know differently now. So now I wonder if it's the same for handlers too."

Jose's blood ran cold. He silently prayed she wasn't going to do what he thought she was. But it was too late to stop her, Henrietta asked that infernal question and nearly made him scream.

"Jose, did something bad happen to you too?"

Time stopped for Jose. Why? Why did she want to know that of all things? He couldn't bring himself to answer, there was no telling what his unstable cyborg would do if he did.

"Just…go to sleep Henrietta," the distraught handler ordered as he struggled to not sound suspicious. After a few agonizing seconds of silence, Henrietta's head sank in the pillow.

Jose's gaze lowered as his thoughts raced. He suddenly donned an angry scowl and stood up, unable to remain calm. Once he was sure his charge was asleep he opened his desk drawer, grabbed his pack of cigarettes, and let himself out.

* * *

><p>The roof of the main building was home to a large telescope, which Jose found himself staring at as he used up his first cigarette in a while. The wind carried the smoke away as he exhaled in frustration and anxiety.<p>

The telescope was his, he and Henrietta used it for stargazing during downtime. It was their own little haven from the rest of the Agency, where Jose could bring her to look at things other than targets on a shooting range. Sometimes they would talk about other matters while they stargazed, things like what the other cyborgs were doing or where Henrietta would like to go for their next vacation.

But right now all Jose could think about was Henrietta's question. He hoped that she would forget it later but knew he shouldn't count on it. What else could he do though? How would he answer her without making things worse?

Suddenly another girl came to mind, one that haunted Jose's thoughts and drove him to join the Social Welfare Agency in the first place.

She had to ask, Henrietta just had to ask.


	9. Presagio

.

Ch. 9

Presagio

Henrietta stirred in her bed as she groaned quietly. Tears leaked as usual when a cyborg dreams, serving as a contrast to her smile.

"Mm… Mommy…" the young girl murmured happily in her sleep. After squirming a bit, her eyes twitched and opened slowly. Her smile faded when she could no longer see her dear mother, prompting her to clumsily prop herself on her elbow and look around. The cyborg was still caught in that awkward and dizzying limbo between awake and asleep.

"Mommy?" Henrietta whimpered.

Soon her sleep induced haze faded and her eyes widened as it all came rushing back. Her lip quivered but she quickly buried her face in the pillow before she could start crying for real. For a few seconds all Henrietta did was lay there and tremble in a desperate attempt to not fall to pieces, though a sharp gasp managed to escape.

Afterwards the trembling ceased and Henrietta went limp. Then the cyborg turned her head over, revealing red and puffy eyes. She let out a sigh and sat up once she decided she wasn't going back to sleep.

Now that Henrietta wasn't preoccupied she noticed that she wasn't in Jose's room anymore, much to her disappointment, instead she was back in her gloomy hospital room. Her gaze lowered and her eyes narrowed, Jose's words from last night came to mind and further fueled her sour mood.

Suddenly the door to her room opened, pulling the cyborg from her thoughts and bringing her attention to two newcomers. Dr. Bianchi and….

"Jose!" Henrietta exclaimed with enthusiasm, though her outward cheeriness was heavily tempered by drowsiness and her discouraging thoughts from earlier. Jose smiled softly at his charge.

"Good morning, Henrietta," he greeted quietly.

Henrietta returned his smile with a lazy one of her own. She noticed that her handler was holding a tray of food. Dr. Bianchi pulled up a chair next to her bed.

"It's good to see you moving again," the doctor said with a friendly smile, "How are you feeling?"

Henrietta's smile suddenly faded and she looked away.

"It's me, it's my job to listen to you, remember?" Bianchi insisted. Still refusing to answer him, Henrietta looked down and clasped her hands together in her lap. Jose took a step closer to the bed.

"It's okay, Henrietta," He told her. Hearing her handler's gentle voice made the cyborg cringe. Eventually she found the courage to at least look in the doctor's general direction. But when she laid eyes on him her gaze snapped downward, as if the mere act of looking at him threatened to blind her.

"Um….I feel kind of heavy and queasy," Henrietta hesitantly answered, still refusing to look up.

"I see," Bianchi stated. The dryness in his voice caught Henrietta's attention and made her feel even more uneasy, it felt as if he knew what she was going to say anyway. "Anything else? Headaches…."

"No," Henrietta interrupted. The doctor's smile faded as he was taken aback by the cyborg's sudden rudeness.

"Very well then," He replied. Henrietta could hear him writing in his notebook. Her muscles tensed as she regretted her attitude from earlier.

"How'd you sleep? Any bad dreams?" Bianchi asked. The brunette child glanced up for a second in an attempt to look the doctor in the eye. Nope.

"I had a dream about my mom," she answered, deliberately keeping it brief.

"And….?" Bianchi inquired with a raised eyebrow, "What happened?" Henrietta's eyes narrowed and she looked back down at her lap.

"I don't want to talk anymore," she said with a more hushed tone than earlier. Bianchi was about to say something when Jose interrupted.

"I think that's all you're getting out of her for now," he told the doctor.

"Alright," Bianchi said with a sigh as he stood up to leave, "mind if I have a word with you outside, Jose?"

"Sure, give me a second."

Jose replaced Bianchi in the chair, making Henrietta look up at him with another tame smile. Her handler returned the smile and set the tray down on the bed near her.

"Go ahead and eat up," Jose told his cyborg, "I'll go see what Bianchi wants and be right back, okay?"

"Okay," Henrietta replied with a nod.

* * *

><p>Out in the hall, Bianchi looked at his notes as Jose exited Henrietta's hospital room.<p>

"Sorry she isn't so talkative, I imagine you didn't get what you wanted from her," Jose apologized with a sigh as the door closed behind him. Bianchi looked up at the handler and set aside his notebook.

"On the contrary, Jose, I've learned quite a deal from that little exchange," the doctor answered matter-of-factly, "You've been around long enough to know there're more reliable clues to a person's state of mind than their words, even if they're telling what they recognize as the truth."

"I think I know what you're talking about," Jose commented as he leaned against the wall. "Henrietta seems more introverted than before, almost like how she was when she first came to the Agency but not completely."

"Her mood seemed to brighten when it was just you in the room, it looks like her affection for you hasn't changed much," Bianchi pointed out.

"Yeah…." Jose acknowledged with a sigh. Part of him had hoped this experience might have done something to make her infatuation more….manageable. However another part of him was grateful that something recognizable about her survived what had happened.

"You don't sound too excited," Bianchi stated observantly with narrow eyes, "Not burning out again, are you?"

"No, I haven't forgotten your advice. Besides, I've come this far," the handler explained as he straitened his posture.

"Yes, as evident by the bullet hole in my office!" Bianchi stated indignantly, "Remember when I said to think things over sober?"

"Found out about that, huh?"

"Hilshire told me, but let's stay on topic."

Jose couldn't agree more. Though grateful for Triela bringing him to his senses, he could have done without being knocked on his ass even though he deserved it.

"Despite her current state I think she'll still listen to you," Bianchi said as he glanced at the door to Henrietta's room, "However she's going to need encouragement if she's to get back to work."

"So I just keep doing what I've been doing?" Jose speculated.

"That and a little more…maybe a lot more," the doctor's eyes narrowed as he spoke, "You saw how difficult it was for me to approach her, she's volatile right now. Play on her admiration for you and get her to open up more, it could help."

"Maybe I'll bring in the other girls sometime and get her socializing again," Jose suggested.

"I'd have such interactions supervised the first few times," Bianchi advised firmly, "We don't need a repeat of Angelica."

Jose nodded in agreement and looked at Henrietta's room. This was going to take a lot of work, but it's this or have her reconditioned. Henrietta's continued existence was still dictated by the Agency, and she wasn't much use to them in a hospital room. The handler began to worry.

"So, how long can we keep her in there?" Jose asked.

"I'm not sure, you'll need to ask the Chief that," Bianchi answered, "I imagine he'll want a word with you after what happened."

"I'll pay him a visit after I'm done here," Jose stated as he approached the door.

* * *

><p>Henrietta stared down at her lap, seemingly oblivious to the food tray Jose left for her. She could hear him and Doctor Bianchi talking outside but she didn't pay attention, she was already preoccupied with her thoughts. That one terrible night refused to vacate her mind.<p>

Henrietta could not only see what happened clearly, but also _feel _it. She could feel an axe tearing her apart, see monstrous and lustful eyes glaring from behind a balaclava, hear an assailant whispering vulgarities in her ear as if he were right next to her…..

"Henrietta?" a man's voice addressed her. Henrietta looked up and gasped in surprise when she noticed Jose standing next to her bed.

"Whoa! Easy there!" he said with his hands raised, "It's just me."

The young girl gripped her shirt and took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. After a while her breathing returned to normal and her handler took a seat.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Jose apologized. Henrietta looked up at him alarmed.

"No, Jose, you didn't do anything wrong!" she said, getting worked up again, "I was distracted and…."

"It's fine, why don't we just forget about it?" the handler suggested with a friendly smile. Henrietta looked bemused at first but she couldn't help but find Jose's smile contagious.

"Okay," she replied as she relaxed.

Despite his appearance, Jose was far from relaxed. Clearly his charge had become even more insecure than before, fretting over anything that might drive a wedge between herself and her precious handler, even something as inconsequential as what just happened. A quick glance at the food tray he brought clued Jose in on another potential symptom of her illness.

"You haven't touched your breakfast!" he pointed out to his cyborg as his smile faded. Henrietta looked at her tray, which she scooted away from herself earlier, and felt a knot in her stomach.

"I'm not hungry…." She replied timidly. For some reason the mere thought of eating made Henrietta queasy. Her handler's face softened, making her feel guilty.

"Even so, you still need to eat, Henrietta," Jose explained, "We can talk after you're finished."

Disappointed, Henrietta stared down at her rather simple meal consisting of a muffin, yogurt, and orange juice. With hesitation she unwrapped the muffin, broke off a small chunk, and ate it. When she swallowed she squeezed her eyes shut as if she just ate a handful of shrapnel. The cyborg quickly did away with her sour face for fear of her handler noticing.

Jose waited patiently for Henrietta to finish her meal. His thoughts went to what she asked last night and he cringed, hoping she wouldn't ask again. Ways to sidestep the subject raced through the handler's head before he noticed his cyborg coughing.

"Slow down and drink some orange juice," Jose advised, figuring she was choking from eating too fast.

Henrietta heeded his advice, though a cough stymied her as she took her sip. The child continued her meal at a less desperate pace, now more aware of her manners. After a minute or so, all that remained was half of her yogurt.

"I'm done," Henrietta announced meekly. Jose looked at her tray.

"Alright then," he replied. Henrietta looked up at her handler expectantly. Jose couldn't help but notice her slightly narrowed eyes, they lacked that children's curious look she had acquired during her time here and were more reminiscent of how timid and lethargic she behaved when she first arrived. Visions of a maimed and broken girl in a wheelchair flashed through Jose's mind but he set them aside.

"Now that it's just you and me, how are you really doing?" the handler asked. Henrietta looked down and spoke dejectedly.

"Not great, it doesn't feel like I'm getting enough oxygen even though I'm breathing normally. I don't think I could taste my breakfast, and now my stomach hurts a bit after eating. I still feel kind of heavy." Henrietta suddenly looked ahead and let her mouth go agape. After a few seconds her mouth closed, her eyes narrowed further, and she hugged her legs. She peeked over her knees and kept staring ahead.

"I keep thinking about when you gave me my gun last night," Henrietta muttered, getting less and less audible, "Then I think of my parents, maybe I should of….should of….."

"Hey!" Jose interrupted, making Henrietta hug her legs tighter from being startled. It wasn't the handler's intention to make her jumpy, but he didn't want her going _there_ again.

"Sorry," Henrietta apologized, a little louder than before.

A few seconds of awkward silence ensued. Henrietta buried her face in her knees. Jose figured she didn't want to talk anymore and was about to get up and leave, but then his cyborg got his attention.

"Um, Jose?" she inquired as she let her legs unfold and turned to face her handler, "How long will I stay here?" Jose straightened up in his seat.

"As long as you need to," he answered, intentionally keeping it vague. Henrietta didn't like his response. She knew she agreed to this but she still hated the idea of shirking her duties to Jose and the Agency.

The Agency….

"But what if it takes too long?" Henrietta asked, sounding a little desperate, "I can't do anything in here, are they allowed to take me away from you if they deem me useless?"

Surprised by her question, Jose leaned back and took a minute to think. It had never been done before, no handler was ever separated from his cyborg due to low performance. Still, Jose felt he was already pushing his luck, there was no telling how much more he could get away with at this point. What Henrietta said next completely annihilated his train of thought.

"I miss my family, I don't want to lose you too," she whimpered as she looked down again, "I don't want to be alone."

Alone. That word brought Jose back in time to another person who lamented being lonely. Someone who came to rely on him whenever she felt abandoned by everyone else. Along with these memories came all-consuming guilt, it ravaged and dominated him in ways he could never resist. Jose wanted to apologize to this person, but she was gone. Henrietta however was still very much alive.

He smiled and gently pinched his cyborg on the cheek, making her jump and yelp like a frightened puppy. Henrietta's cheeks obtained a pinkish glow and she stared at Jose adoringly once she realized what was going on.

"Don't worry, it won't come to that," he assured her, "It'll be hard, but if you behave and don't give them anything to worry about, then you'll be out of here before you know it!"

Henrietta returned his smile and took a second to enjoy his attention before she answered.

"Okay."

* * *

><p>Triela couldn't see a thing, but she felt warm, or at least felt something warm close to her. A bright light kept her from opening her eyes fully, strangely she did not care.<p>

Then the cyborg felt a weight on her akin to that of an adult, she'd dragged enough corpses around to tell. Then she smelled something….perfume? So it was a woman laying on top of her, or a man in desperate need of therapy. It felt as if this lady was giving her a hug, or at least something akin to one. Triela decided to go with the first possibility. She didn't know why anyone would be this close to her, but she didn't mind the company. In fact, she found it relieving.

Relieving? From what? It didn't matter.

Suddenly the tender silence was interrupted by a muffled shout. Triela's hearing was no better off than her sight at the moment. Straining to listen, the cyborg realized it was a man's voice. He sounded alarmed, upset even. What was there to be upset about? Finally, what he was shouting became clear.

"Rachelle!"

A name, probably belongs to the lady currently keeping her company. But what piqued Triela's curiosity was the voice itself, it sounded familiar….

"Hilshire?" she muttered.

* * *

><p>Once she entered her shared bedroom, Claes sighed at what welcomed her. Triela had fallen asleep at the table, her head rested on her arms as tears and light snoring escaped her. Claes rolled her eyes and slammed her stack of books on the table, making her roommate flinch and open her eyes.<p>

"Good morning, again," Claes greeted sarcastically. Triela groaned and wiped her tears on her sleeve.

"I believe the proper term for someone like you is a 'jerk'," Triela commented with thinly veiled annoyance as she sat up.

"Didn't get much sleep?" Claes asked as she took a seat at the table and opened her book.

"Nobody did, you were there!" Triela pointed out. Her roommate took a gentler tone.

"True, but I wasn't the one who collapsed in a crying heap, what was that anyway?" Claes looked at Triela inquisitively, seemingly lacking the concern one would associate such a question with, "It's not like you to just lose it like that."

Triela's answer didn't come as fast as she'd like. In truth she had lost her composure once before, she threw quite a hissy fit after losing to Pinocchio in Montalcino. Luckily, the only one ever to bear witness to such an unsightly spectacle was….Hilshire….

As last night came to mind, Triela was beset upon by an upsetting realization.

"Everyone saw that, didn't they?" Triela groaned.

"Yup," Claes answered nonchalantly. The pigtailed cyborg groaned in embarrassment and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Fantastic," she complained.

"So what's up? Why'd you do that?" Claes asked again, trying take her roommate's attention away from the embarrassment.

Triela leaned back and sighed. After thinking for a few seconds she found a way to put her actions into words.

"I think I was just relieved," she answered with a wry smile, "There was a ton of stuff in me and it just…spilled out all at once. Maybe it was just a way to finally vent."

"What were you relieved from?" Claes inquired, her curiosity piqued. Triela leaned forward and propped her head up with her hand.

"Henrietta not killing herself, obviously. I guess I also had some crap swelling up from beating Pinocchio, couldn't vent back then for some reason. Then there's…."

Triela trailed off and her smile vanished. Her thoughts went to how she felt when they all thought Henrietta was dead, or rather how she _didn't _feel. Perhaps that was the real reason she fell apart, she was relieved she didn't have a dead friend to be indifferent about. The pigtailed cyborg decided to squelch such cold and selfish thoughts, just thinking about them made her disgusted with herself. Still, the matter had to be investigated.

"Hey, Claes?" Triela addressed as she sat up and looked at her roommate, "How did you feel when you thought she killed herself?"

Claes looked at Triela and opened her mouth to speak, then suddenly stopped as if she doubted what she was going to say. Her head tilted and her eyes looked upward. After a few seconds, the bespectacled cyborg donned a puzzled look and she looked back at her roommate.

"I…don't really know," Claes answered quietly, "I knew I was supposed to be sad, but…"

Supposed to be, not was. Triela felt an intrusive sense of dread. Nobody shed a single tear when Elsa and Lauro died, she assumed it was due to them being cold to everyone else. Henrietta on the other hand had integrated herself into a little circle with Rico and Triela. Claes and Angelica would sometimes be a part of it, even though Claes' personality and Angelica's failing mind made it difficult for the shy Henrietta to approach them without things getting awkward.

So why did Henrietta's apparent suicide have about the same effect as Elsa's death?

The cyborgs always approached the subject of death casually, Triela figured it a product of their conditioning. Perhaps it also meant….

…

"Uh…so, how about Angelica?" Triela suddenly asked, deliberately changing the subject, "She acted weird too."

"Yeah," Claes agreed. Both cyborgs knew that pursuing the previous subject would only lead to trouble for them, though Triela wanted to come back to it once things calmed down.

"Slapping her conditioning meds away like that, you think she's getting better?" Triela speculated. Claes looked down in her book and her eyes narrowed.

"That's probably just wishful thinking, Triela," she said quietly, "She was upset at the time. Between that, the amount of drugs already in her system, and her decaying brain, she most likely didn't know what she was doing. I'll be surprised if she remembers it happening at all!"

Triela sank in her seat. Angelica had become less recognizable as time went on. Sometimes the pigtailed cyborg would feel as if she were talking to a complete stranger. What grabbed Triela's attention though was Angelica's reaction to the gunshot, she was the only one who openly showed sadness. Rico had been stunned and Claes withdrew herself, but neither of them actually expressed anything until after they learned that Henrietta was still alive.

Though what Claes just said turned her curiosity into worry. The fact that Angelica reacted so differently was a troubling sign, even though it was contrary to the indifference Triela felt at the time.

* * *

><p>"Jose, I've covered for you before but this is a bit much!" Lorenzo said as he rubbed his temples. Jose humbly sat across from his desk.<p>

"With all due respect, sir, I think the results speak for themselves," he retorted calmly. Lorenzo laid his hands on his desk and glared at the handler.

"Neglecting your cyborg in order to obliterate your liver in some bar is one thing, but giving her the opportunity to kill herself? Are you mad!?" the chief accused, raising his voice slightly. Jose didn't seem the least bit shaken, he leaned back and maintained his calm voice.

"It was calculated, I knew she wouldn't do it."

"How?"

Jose never told anyone about Henrietta's confession in Sicily, it would just bring on more pressure to increase her conditioning. How else would anyone possibly react to a cyborg threatening to kill her handler and herself if she wasn't loved? The only ones who knew were himself, Henrietta, and two certain Section One agents. Said agents had no proof of what happened and all Jose had to do was tell Henrietta to keep quiet about it, she'd do anything he said.

So the handler opted to keep his answer vague.

"I reminded her of the ties she had here, she'd be breaking a promise if she went through with it," Jose explained. It left out certain details, but it wasn't false. Lorenzo stared at him and squinted as he processed his answer, after a few seconds his face softened and he leaned back.

"I see," the chief said, "But she's still being kept in the infirmary. Jose, this isn't a mental hospital. Sooner or later she has to get back out there, how long do you plan to keep her off duty?"

Jose broke eye contact and looked down.

"I'm not sure, I'm hoping this won't take long," he answered hesitantly. The chief sighed and leaned forward.

"Look, Jose, I appreciate what you're trying to do," Lorenzo explained, "But with this _Isabella _business taking place, all of Section Two may end up being needed. I want you and Henrietta to be there when the time comes, so please try to make this quick."

"I'll try, sir," Jose replied, still looking down.


	10. Illusione

.

Ch. 10

Illusione

Jean winced in response to the glaring sunlight as he walked out into the courtyard, mentally cursing the dark and gloomy corridors of the Agency. As it turns out, the initial glare proved a deceiving forecast, dark clouds dominated the sky. He started making his way to a bench but an unexpected surprise greeted him, Jose leaning against a wall nearby. Jean's face soured as he turned to walk away. He didn't get far before he suddenly stopped and looked down. After a few seconds, he sighed in defeat and went to join Jose. The younger brother showed no sign of acknowledgement when his guest leaned against the wall next to him. Both Croce brothers just stared ahead before Jean finally broke the silence.

"How's Henrietta?" He asked dryly.

"She's not combat ready, if that's what you're asking," Jose answered, still not looking at him. Jean gave a brief sigh before speaking again.

"Well, she's going to be needed soon."

"I know, the chief told me this job with the _Isabella_ could get pretty rough," Jose mentioned, "Speaking of which, did we get anything off of Roberto's laptop?"

"Yeah, they found a mafia contact on it," Jean replied as he straightened up, "She's been trafficking weapons for the F.R.F. The weapons used to hijack the ship came through her."

"You think she knows where the _Isabella _is? Or what they plan to do with it?" Jose asked.

"If not, she can at least point us in the right direction. Hilshire and Triela are being sent to apprehend her."

On cue, the aforementioned fratello could be seen making their way across the courtyard. Triela noticed Jose and did a double take, slowing her pace. She was too far away for Jean to tell for sure, but he could have sworn she was glaring at Jose. A call from Hilshire put her mind back on business and she went on her way. Jean looked at Jose with a raised eyebrow.

"Looks like you caught her attention," he pointed out.

"She's probably just worried about Henrietta," Jose replied. Jean noticed his brother's eyes narrow slightly. There was probably an interesting story hidden in there somewhere, but he noticed something else before he could ask. A lit cigarette smoked in his brother's hand.

"Thought you quit," He commented. Jose responded with a disdainful sniff. Jean let it go and moved on to something else on his mind.

"Look, Jose, I know I've been giving you a hard time about Henrietta recently," he paused when he noticed Jose giving him and annoyed look, prompting him to sigh, "Okay, more of a hard time than usual."

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Jose asked, "Back in Sicily, you said I was being more natural with Henrietta." Jean's answer lingered in his throat before it finally came out.

"I'm just concerned that you lost sight of why we joined the Agency in the first place," he answered.

"No," Jose replied sternly as his face darkened, "I could never forget what happened, especially Enrica."

"Well, at least he remembers me," a girl's voice suddenly pointed out. Jean jumped a little and looked around for the voice's owner. He knew who it was already. To his surprise, a young girl was suddenly leaning against the wall right next to him. Her dark smile sent shivers down his spine as he backed up and gasped slightly.

"Jean? Is everything okay?" Jose asked. Jean quickly regained his composure and looked away from his visitor.

"Just felt a chill. Surprised me," he answered as he did away with his shocked expression. The girl strolled in front of him and crossed her arms, her face soured.

"You shouldn't ignore your own sister, Jean!" she criticized, "But I suppose that's old hat for you. Jose was the only one who paid any attention to me."

Jean resisted the urge to talk back to his dead sister, last thing he needed was his brother thinking he was crazy. "Enrica" sighed and looked at Jose for a few seconds before approaching him. He didn't seem to notice as he resumed smoking.

"You know, I bet he just loves this," she mused with another dark smile. Jean's gaze turned to her. Though he didn't want to alert Jose to anything, what she just said still caught his attention. "Poor little Henrietta, so scared and insecure. All his to take care of, like me."

"Hey, Jean," Jose said, catching Jean's attention, "Mind if I borrow Rico this afternoon?"

"What for?" Jean asked, thankful for the distraction from what he hoped was just a hallucination. Jose dropped his cigarette on the concrete and snuffed it out with his shoe before answering.

"I'd like her to visit Henrietta. She needs to be socializing again and I figure she'll be more comfortable with the one she shares her room with."

Jean looked at Enrica, who tilted her head and raised an eyebrow in anticipation for his answer. His brows furrowed slightly before he looked back at Jose.

"Actually, I'd like to be there too," Jean said. Earning a surprised look from his brother.

"Really? What prompted this?" Jose inquired. Jean looked down.

"I'm curious to see how Rico will handle this. It's a new situation for her."

Jose raised an eyebrow, making Jean think he wasn't buying it. Then again he couldn't exactly blame him, Jean never gave his brother any reason to believe he actually cared about Rico's social life. He didn't, but he also couldn't divulge the real reason he wanted to go with her.

"I really appreciate it. 5:30?" Jose asked.

"Sure," Jean agreed, hiding his relief.

"Alright," Jose looked at his watch, "Hey, I better get going. I'll see you later."

"Yeah."

Jose made his way back inside, leaving his brother alone with Enrica. Jean was about to leave too when he noticed Enrica putting her hands on her hips and grinning at him. He let out an exasperated sigh and approached her.

"Alright, what is it?" he asked sternly. The apparition let her arms drop.

"That was a nice excuse. You just want to see if I'm right," she accused. Jean glared at her and raised his voice a little, getting annoyed.

"About what? What did you mean when you said he loves this?" Enrica's smile vanished and her eyes narrowed before she answered.

"You shouldn't ask questions you already know the answer to!" she scolded, "Don't lie to yourself like Jose does. He wants to pretend Henrietta is his sweet little sister, which should be easy for him now that she can't be trusted with a gun! She's the perfect replacement for him to play 'Big Brother Jose' for."

"That'll change soon," Jean retorted as he struggled not to shout due to his rising ire, "Either she gets it under control or she'll be reconditioned. Whichever it is, Henrietta will be put back on active duty and Jose will have no choice but to face reality."

Enrica's malicious smile returned. Jean raised an eyebrow at her apparent amusement. The apparition took a few steps forward, making the handler want to back up but he resisted the urge. Instead, he stared her down as she crossed her arms. Though, what she asked next cut through his persona with ease.

"Would that be the best thing for him?"

"What?" Jean asked back as his stern glare faded. Enrica placed her arms behind her back.

"Revenge is all that matters to you, Padania needs to pay for what happened to Sophia and me," she explained. Jean flinched at the mention of his late fiancé. "But Jose isn't as focused as you are, he's too preoccupied with his guilt for not being there for me! I'm sure I don't need to remind you of how hard he took my death. Jose wouldn't have joined the Social Welfare Agency if you didn't drag him off, he probably would have drank himself to death! But doesn't he seem more stable now that he has a little sister again?" Jean's glare returned before he responded.

"I wouldn't call him 'stable', he's living in a fantasy so he can stand to be around that needy little time bomb!" he almost shouted, "He's been convinced by his own bullshit!" Enrica tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, as if amused and satisfied with what he just said.

"So, what will you do now, big brother Jean?" she asked.

Jean looked down and gritted his teeth. There was annoyingly inconvenient truth to what she said earlier. His anger reached its fever pitch, making him look back at Enrica and….

"Jean?" A child's voice called from behind him. Jean turned around and was rewarded with the sight of Rico staring up at him. Her eyes lit up with concern for her handler. "Were you talking to someone just now?" Jean froze in bewilderment, he didn't expect to see his cyborg. He quickly unfroze and turned back around, but was surprised to find no further trace of his dead sister.

"What the...?" Jean trailed off, trying to make sense of what just happened. The event seemed too similar to when Enrica appeared to him in Sicily. She accused him of letting Jose use Henrietta as a replacement sister that time as well. What bothered Jean was that he couldn't tell if she was a ghost or a hallucination, and that she seemed to know more about his business than he did. Jean reminded himself that Rico was here, did away with his perplexed expression, and turned to face her.

"No, it's just us," Jean finally answered. He noticed Rico carrying her weapon case, "You ready to go?"

"Yes, sir," she dutifully replied with a nod. Jean had told her to meet him here earlier for training. He adjusted his tie as he came down from the adrenaline from what just happened, going through the usual motions with Rico seemed to help. He turned and started walking before gesturing for his cyborg to follow suit. She trotted alongside him as they walked across the courtyard.

"You'll be running the CQB course today. Do as well as you've been doing recently and we won't have to be there long." Jean explained.

He stopped walking as he remembered his talk with Jose. Rico looked up at him and was about to ask what the deal was, but he suddenly spoke. "I almost forgot," Jean said, "Rico, you and I are visiting Henrietta this afternoon."

"Oh! Okay, Jean!" Rico replied with a bubbly smile.

* * *

><p>Triela leaned back in the passenger seat of Hilshire's car as she lazily stared out the window. She paid no mind to Hilshire, who occasionally glanced her way while he drove. The current mission was all she wanted on her mind, but other thoughts plagued her as well.<p>

"So, you want to talk about what happened last night?" Hilshire suddenly spoke up, making her sit up straight. Triela kept her answer short, since she wasn't in the mood for a conversation.

"What's there to talk about? Henrietta snapped out of it."

"I mean you. You seemed pretty shaken up," Hilshire pointed out, "I know it got intense, but you're not one to freak out like you did."

"Hey, I didn't freak out!" Triela protested as she turned to glare at her handler, "Claes already asked me about this and I don't feel like repeating it."

"I'd still like to know the details," Hilshire replied, "We haven't talked much since you killed Pinocchio. Henrietta told me you haven't been the most cheerful person since then." Triela sighed, looked ahead, and mentally cursed her younger friend.

"I was just venting, alright?" she said, minding her tone, "I had a bunch of crap bottled up and it all came out at once. Nothing to get nervous about."

"Why keep it bottled up in the first place? You've never had qualms with speaking your mind before!" Hilshire pointed out. Triela avoided looking at him. She didn't want to answer, but she saw no way to get out of the conversation.

"I don't know," the cyborg replied with noticeable annoyance.

"What do you mean 'you don't know'?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, I don't know! And it kind of weirds me out a little…." Triela let out a brief sigh and lowered her head, she didn't mean to say that last part. Hilshire's face softened as he briefly looked at his cyborg. He quickly looked back at the road.

"You want to talk with Dr. Bianchi when we get back?" he asked. Triela raised her head again.

"This time I'd rather not," she answered with a sigh. Hilshire narrowed his eyes and used a more stern tone of voice when he spoke again.

"Triela…."

"Don't 'Triela' me! I…whoa…" Triela was suddenly beset by an intense and agonizing pressure in her forehead. She leaned back in her seat and pinched the bridge of her nose as she let out a pained groan. The pain made it impossible for Triela to keep track of time, by the time her agony faded it felt like it had been hours.

"That time of the month?" Hilshire asked, making her look out the window.

"Yup, right on time. It's going to be a fun week," Triela answered with thinly veiled sarcasm. She hoped it would only last a week, or even just a couple days. But it lasted longer before.

"Are you going to be okay for now?" Hilshire inquired.

"I'll hold until we get back to the Agency," Triela answered.

* * *

><p>Henrietta stared up at the ceiling from her hospital bed, neatly tucked under the covers. Since she wasn't allowed to have anything without someone else in the room, there wasn't any feasible way to pass the time. And without any distractions she would often dwell on….bad things. So she would preoccupy her thoughts with tasks such as naming off every component of her weapons like her P90 and SIG, though sometimes she'd have trouble recalling what certain parts were called and would stop out of anxiety.<p>

The small cyborg sat up and looked out the window, tired of staring at the ceiling. Outside didn't look much better though, dark clouds forbade any sunlight from gracing the landscape. Apparently that didn't stop Claes from tending to her garden, whom Henrietta just now noticed. For a moment all Henrietta did was watch her fellow cyborg toil away. It was a step up from all the nothing going on in her hospital room.

Henrietta helped Claes out with gardening once, but didn't actually pay attention to what she was doing. She just did as she was told. Now that she was just watching and not under any social pressure, Henrietta attempted to make sense of Claes' actions. As she attempted this though, she began to lament not being able to spend time on her own hobbies. Watching Claes garden was a nice distraction but it wasn't something she was interested in.

Playing the violin on the other hand was pure bliss to Henrietta, especially when Jose would sit and listen to her. It was Jose who suggested it in the first place, so it had to be good. A smile crept on her face as she thought of performing for her dear handler. She wondered if her parents would like to hear her play…

Henrietta's smile faded and she looked away from the window, just missing Claes briefly look back up at her window before quickly returning to her work. Her parents would never be able to see what she could do now. She could sing, play the violin, speak at least three different languages, leap great distances, score expert on the marksman range (not anywhere near Rico's caliber, but still), and clear a room full of enemies before they knew they were in trouble. They wouldn't even know how many people she killed for Jose, she'd gladly kill a lot more for them.

The sound of her door opening brought her out of her gloom and prompted her to look towards the door with an excited smile, thinking it was Jose. This smile quickly faded and she slightly tensed up once she realized who her visitor was.

"Uh... Hello, Jean," she greeted meekly. Jean maintained a businesslike demeanor as he entered the room.

"Good afternoon," he said back. Henrietta didn't dislike Jean, but he still intimidated her somewhat. She had no idea how Rico could be so calm around him. Speaking of whom, Henrietta noticed a visitor much closer to her own size behind the handler.

"Oh! Rico!" she exclaimed with a little more enthusiasm. Rico stepped further into view and smiled at her bunkmate.

"Hi, Henrietta." The blonde cyborg greeted.

* * *

><p>Triela leaned against the wall and listened for any activity around the corner, the back alley she occupied was barren save for herself. In truth, she needed to be out on a mission. Out here there was no drama, no Henrietta to look out for, and most importantly no time for worrisome introspection. Just the task at hand. Which right now was to wait for Hilshire to herd a mafia weapons dealer into her trap.<p>

"Triela, Gisella and her two bodyguards just ducked into the alley as expected. They should be heading your way now. Both guards are trailing behind the target. Dispatch them and subdue her," Hilshire ordered over her earpiece.

"Roger," Triela confirmed. SIG-Sauer P230SL in hand, she pressed herself against the wall and waited. After a minute or so, she could hear three steps of footsteps around the corner. By the sound of it they were in a hurry, but not full on sprinting. Hilshire must have spooked them, Triela thought. Good. They'll be more concerned with what's behind them.

Once the footsteps sounded close enough, Triela swiftly turned the corner, grabbed Gisella's jacket, and shoved her to the ground. Now crouched and pinning her quarry by the head, the cyborg immediately fired two rounds into the furthest guard. The other one brandished a knife and lunged at her. Triela stood up and deflected the incoming attack with her wrist, guiding her foe's arm away and letting his momentum carry him closer to her. She then shoved the barrel of her gun into the man's abdomen and fired once. After which she shoved the now limp body off of her in time to see the other guard finally collapse with a final groan. Blood painted her leather coat.

Once all was said and done, Triela turned her weapon onto Gisella, who was in the process of getting back up. Gisella immediately froze and then raised her hands with a confused look on her face. Triela guessed she didn't expect to be taken down by a child.

"You're….you're just a kid!" Gisella pointed out. Triela didn't respond, instead Hilshire appeared behind her and walked closer to the pair.

"Gisella Necchi," he said with a stern glare, "Member of the mafia and weapons dealer. I'd like to ask you a few questions about your recent clients."

Gisella looked back and forth between the handler and cyborg before letting out a defeat sigh and saying, "Alright, I'll come with you and answer any questions you have."

"Just like that?" Hilshire asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You got me, doesn't matter how much the boss pays me. I'm fucked," Gisella explained, "I should have known I was in over my head when the story about that ship being stolen aired on T.V."

Hilshire nodded and turned his attention to Triela.

"Get her in the car," he ordered.

"On it," Triela affirmed as she got to work.

Too short, Triela thought. This mission was too short. Now it was back to the chaotic mess that was the other cyborgs. Perhaps it was for the best though, Henrietta was no doubt going to need some attention and Jose can't be there all the time. Though, she anticipated her menstrual cycle making things even more difficult. The last thing Henrietta needed was an irritable Triela giving her guff. Still, Triela felt she had to make time for her.

* * *

><p>Rico sat in a chair across from Henrietta, who sat on the edge of her bed as she held hands with the blonde cyborg. Jean sat in a chair on the far end of the room, not looking there way. Rico suspected Jean was listening in on them, but that was fine. He knew best, after all.<p>

"How's it been in here?" Rico asked.

"Really boring, it's nice to finally have someone to talk to," Henrietta commented with noticeable relief. Rico couldn't help but feel relieved as well, not having a catatonic Henrietta to remind her of the unbearable purgatory that was her paralysis. Granted Henrietta still seemed worse for wear, but it was still a step up. Rico couldn't help but comment on something quite glaring.

"I'm so used to seeing your hair well kept," she pointed out with a giggle, "It's all messy now!"

Henrietta's smile was replaced by a wide eyed look of dismay as she quickly touched her hair. She then let her hands rest in her lap as she looked down with a frown. Rico stopped laughing and tilted her hear head curiously. Her eyes widened once she realized her mistake.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Henrietta!" she apologized, "I shouldn't have laughed."

"Its fine," Henrietta said dejectedly. Her sour face remained, which bothered Rico. She didn't mean to make her upset.

"So, why aren't you fixing your hair like you always do?" Rico asked.

"I'm not allowed to have anything while I'm by myself," Henrietta answered, still not looking at Rico, "So I can't have my hairbrush."

"Why not?" Rico asked innocently. Henrietta finally looked back up at Rico.

"Jose's afraid I might try to hurt myself. I don't see how I can do that with a hairbrush though," Henrietta explained. Rico could actually think of a few ways a hairbrush could be used as an improvised weapon, obviously there were much more effective alternatives. She decided to keep it to herself, probably not wise to give Henrietta ideas. Though Rico had no idea why anyone would want to hurt themselves, a perfectly functioning body was not something to be wasted.

"Well it's only if you're alone, right? Maybe someone can bring it and you can brush your hair while they visit!" Rico suggested with a friendly smile. Henrietta didn't give a verbal response, but her smile returned. Rico felt a little better now, but felt it best to hide her relief. After a few seconds of silence, Henrietta changed the subject.

"Hey, I don't suppose you know when Jose will visit me?" she asked. Rico could hear a bit of anxiety in her voice.

"I don't know. But I'm sure he'll come by later today!" Rico responded reassuringly. Henrietta nodded but started fidgeting. In truth, Jose was waiting outside with Dr. Bianchi. They decided it'd be best if the center of her universe wasn't around to distract her from socializing. Rico was aware of how enamored Henrietta was with her handler, and how much she worried about what he thought about her. The blonde cyborg didn't feel that way about Jean at all, but she understood that she had to do whatever he said.

"I was afraid he didn't like how I did on the last mission," Henrietta explained as her smile vanished again, "I only killed five people."

"Six," Rico corrected, making her bunkmate look up at her with a slightly more alarmed expression.

"Huh?"

"You killed six people, remember?" Rico asked with a frown. A cyborg forgetting something always caused unease, considering what it usually meant. Henrietta's shoulders tensed, giving Rico the impression she said something stupid again.

"Wait…what happened to Roberto?" Henrietta asked. Rico's response delayed, she felt as if she shouldn't tell the truth but didn't know what else to say.

"You killed him," she answered.

Suddenly, Henrietta's eyes widened and she sat up straighter. Her breathing became noticeably shaky. Rico didn't think she'd react like that.

"I…I did?" Henrietta stuttered as the color drained from her face, "I thought that was just a….I don't….I…." Her words were overpowered by sudden hyperventilating. Rico leaned back a little in response, the sound of her bunkmate's raspy and increasingly violent breaths caught her off guard. She quickly regained her composure and grabbed Henrietta's hands.

"Henrietta, what's wrong!?" Rico asked urgently. Henrietta's gazed snapped back to Rico as if she just remembered she was sitting right there, but Rico felt like she was looking _through _her.

"I messed up!" Henrietta managed to shout between gasps, which were slowly turning into sobs, "We were supposed to capture Roberto! Jose's keeping me in here because I didn't follow orders! He hates me! He's going to abandon me! I'm going to be alone again!" Her shouting turned into outright screaming. Rico grabbed her shoulders in a futile attempt to stop her from shaking.

"No! It's okay!" Rico insisted, trying to keep her own voice reasonably quiet, "He's worried about you, that's all. You're not in trouble!" A sound from behind Rico told her Jean stood up from his seat. Henrietta didn't listen to her, it was almost as if she didn't acknowledge her bunkmate's existence

"I have to find him…" Henrietta muttered as she tried to get up from her bed. Rico held her down but Henrietta's struggling became progressively violent and desperate. Soon she started shrieking defiantly.

"Rico, hold her down!" Jean ordered. Rico shoved Henrietta down on her back and pinned her by her wrists before weighing both her legs down with one of her own.

"Calm down! It's going to be fine!" Rico reassured, thankful for Jean giving her direction in such an uncomfortable situation. Henrietta stopped struggling and stared up at Rico, seemingly confused. What little color she had left vanished as her eyes suddenly widened in absolute horror. After sucking in a huge breath, she let out the loudest scream Rico had ever heard. Rico was almost thrown off when the brunette cyborg started thrashing like animal caught in a trap, but she managed to keep her pinned to the bed. She didn't know what else to do besides keep doing what Jean told her to do.

The door swung open, letting in Jose and Dr. Bianchi. They immediately rushed past Jean and to Henrietta's side. Rico figured they were alerted by Henrietta's scream.

"Henrietta, what's wrong!?" Jose asked. She didn't answer. Bianchi turned to Jean.

"What the hell happened!?" he demanded to know.

"She started freaking out and tried to leave," Jean explained, shouting over Henrietta's screaming and hysterical crying, "I told Rico to hold her down but then she grew even more violent!" Bianchi turned his gaze back to Henrietta as his eyes narrowed.

"Damn it, she's hallucinating!" the doctor exclaimed. Jose took a step closer to the bed.

"Henrietta, it's me!" he shouted, "It's alright, I'm right here!" Henrietta's eyes opened slightly as she looked at her handler, tears kept her from opening them all the way. She kept struggling but slowly simmered down, only doing the occasional twitch now. Rico looked up at Jose, then at Jean.

"Rico, you can get off her now," Jean said to her, "Slowly." Rico looked back at Henrietta and gradually loosened her grip on her wrists, allowing the brunette cyborg to prop herself up on her elbows. Once she was sure the danger had passed, Rico completely withdrew and stood up from the bed. Henrietta inched away to the other side of the bed and curled up into a shivering ball, whimpering all the while.

Rico looked between her and Jose, anxious about what would happen next. Jose sat on the bed and placed a hand on his charge's shoulder. Henrietta looked up at her handler with tear filled eyes and sniffed.

"I'm sorry, Jose!" she apologized desperately, "I know I wasn't supposed to kill Roberto. I promise I'll do better next time! You don't have to leave me here! What do you want me to do?" Jose's eyes narrowed.

"So that's what this is about," he said as his voice softened. "Henrietta, I'm not mad at you. Like I said before, you're still very sick. Letting you back out there now is not going to help you." The small cyborg let her head sink further into the pillow and sniffed again, she still wasn't quite finished crying. Bianchi stepped closer to the bed and handed Jose a handkerchief, which the handler immediately used to wipe away his charge's tears.

"Being pinned down like that must have triggered a psychotic episode," Bianchi explained grimly, "She probably mistook Rico for one of her attackers from that one night."

Rico flinched at the mention of her name. She was only doing what she was told, she was trying to help. There was no way Jean could have been wrong.

"Should I not have told her to do that?" Jean asked stoically, unknowingly asking the same thing his cyborg wanted to know. Bianchi turned to Jean as his faced softened.

"You made the right call, Jean," he assured, "We can't have a mentally unstable cyborg loose around here, despite how things turned out." Rico let out a relieved sigh that nobody else noticed, thankfully. Jean was right after all.

"Hey, you mind giving me some time alone with Henrietta?" Jose requested, "I still have to calm her down some."

"Very well," Jean agreed, "Rico, we're leaving."

"Yes, sir."

Jean and Bianchi left the room with Rico in tow. Rico heard Jose talking to Henrietta as she left. She looked up at Jean as the two of them walked down the hallway, noticing his eyes narrow in what she interpreted as anger. Rico had never been so confused before. Though Henrietta could move again, she was still uncomfortably different from before. Sure, she cried a lot before, but didn't do anything like what just happened. Then there was Jean, his normally professional persona had been cracked by something. Rico didn't know what, but something was definitely troubling her handler.

There's too much change going on, Rico thought. But at least Jean still knew what to do.


	11. Dissolvenza

.

Ch. 11

Dissolvenza

Triela slumped in her seat with her arms and head resting on the table. Two of her teddy bears sat on the table. Claes was nowhere to be seen, which Triela was thankful for. Fatigue was all she knew at the moment, but she preferred this to cramps or headaches. A knock at the door prompted her to groan and lift her head.

"Who is it?" she asked as she palmed her forehead.

"Rico," her visitor answered. Triela lowered her hand and looked at the door.

"Come on in."

Rico entered but stopped just shy of closing the door behind her. A frown found its way on her face.

"Is now a bad time?" she asked. Triela suddenly became aware of her appearance and found the energy to sit up, instantly regretting it as she struggled to hold herself up.

"No, you're fine," she insisted with a forced smile, "Sit." The smaller cyborg closed the door and took a seat across from Triela.

"I don't recall you having that one," Rico said as she pointed at one of the teddy bears on the table.

"It's new," Triela replied as she patted said bear on the head, "Hilshire gave it to me after we captured that mafia weapons dealer yesterday. I kind of snapped at him."

"What for?" Rico asked as she tilted her head curiously.

"I wasn't having a good day. Big girl stuff."

"Oh."

Triela held her new gift and stared at it for a few seconds. She admitted that Hilshire didn't have to apologize by getting another bear, she wasn't exactly fair to him. The gesture was still appreciated, none the less.

"Anyway, what's up?" Triela asked as she set her new bear in her lap and looked back at her fellow cyborg. Rico looked down.

"Jean and I visited Henrietta yesterday," she answered.

"Really?" Triela replied as she sat up a little straighter, "How was she?"

"She freaked out and I had to hold her down until she stopped," Rico explained, "I wouldn't have known what to do if Jean wasn't there." A frown formed on Triela's face.

"Why'd she freak out?" she asked. Rico looked away for a few seconds, which didn't help with the unease Triela suddenly felt. Eventually, the smaller cyborg looked back at her.

"We were talking about the last mission and she ended up thinking Jose was mad at her for killing Roberto," Rico explained, "Then she tried to leave, that's when Jean told me to hold her. She got worse after that."

Triela's eyes narrowed and her gaze lowered as she mulled over what she just learned. It didn't take a genius to figure out why Henrietta freaked out after being pinned down. This prompted Triela to ask something else.

"What made her calm down?"

"Jose came in and called to her. She didn't immediately listen to him though," Rico answered.

"That's reassuring…" Triela sarcastically let slip. Ever since Jose nearly called it quits and almost sent Henrietta off to be reconditioned, Triela couldn't help but be suspicious of him. Best not to tell anyone about her worries, she thought. Especially Henrietta herself.

"Doctor Bianchi said that Jean was right in telling me to pin her down, even though I scared her," Rico explained, pulling Triela from her thoughts.

"Well considering the last time Henrietta got upset she literally ate a guy's throat, it was probably best that you restrained her," Triela reassured with a friendly smile. Rico gave a thankful smile in return.

"Thanks, but it was Jean who told me to do it," Rico corrected.

"Right…" Triela commented.

"Oh, did you hear? Angelica is being let out of the infirmary!" Rico mentioned. Triela was taken aback by the sudden topic change, but only for a split second. She reminded herself how unversed Rico was in the art of conversation.

"No, I didn't. That's good news!" Triela exclaimed.

"Well, kind of," Rico added as her smile faded, "Marco still hasn't cleared her for active duty."

"Oh, she's not going to like that. But at least she'll…be…" Triela trailed off as her gaze lowered. After a second of thinking she looked back at Rico. "Hey, when does she get out?"

"Marco's probably picking her up right now," Rico answered, "Why?"

"Knowing Henrietta, she's probably still feeling crummy about misbehaving. And Angelica won't be any better once Marco tells her she's not ready to head back out yet," Triela explained as she stood up, "I think I have a way to kill two birds with one…oh boy." She immediately slumped back down in her seat and groaned as the room started spinning and an unpleasant pressure formed in her stomach.

"I take it you were lying when you said you were fine," Rico commented. Triela was too busy doubling over and holding her stomach to respond.

* * *

><p>Once again finding himself in Lorenzo's office, Jose couldn't help but figure coming here so frequently was a bad sign. At least Bianchi was here to share the anxiety this time. The handler took a seat across form the Chief while Bianchi stood next to him. Jean was also present, standing near Lorenzo's desk.<p>

"Well, this has certainly been an eventful few days for Henrietta, Jose," Lorenzo commented. Somehow, the fact that he wasn't scolding him unsettled Jose even more.

"That's putting it mildly," Jean added as he crossed his arms. A snide comment formed in Jose's mind, but he kept it to himself. Lorenzo raised his hand in a gesture for Jean to be silent before speaking again.

"And now we have another outburst. At least nobody was injured this time."

"It's not really something she has control over, Chief," Jose pointed out.

"I wasn't trying to be insulting, I understand this is a situation no handler has faced before. However, it doesn't make it any less of a problem that needs to be solved soon," Lorenzo turned to Bianchi. "It can be solved soon, correct?" The doctor's eyes narrowed, Jose figured he was trying to be mindful of his words.

"'Solved', yes. 'Soon' might be a far cry from possible," he answered. Lorenzo pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"I know it's not what you wanted to hear, sir," Jean said, "But I've seen her myself, she's not fit for field work in her present state."

"And it may get worse before it gets better," Bianchi added, "Henrietta will still receive the minimal conditioning dosages, as per Jose's instructions. But, in light of recent developments it probably won't be enough to stop her from remembering more of her past life. Which, depending on what she remembers, may cause further behavioral problems."

"What could possibly be worse to recall than the incident that sent her here in the first place?" Jose asked. He figured things could still be worse, ever since Henrietta asked him if anything bad happened to him before joining the agency. Thinking of what to do about that was already exhausting, now here Bianchi was telling him there's more.

"It's not just the unpleasant memories we need to worry about, Jose," Bianchi explained, "She may start comparing her past life to this one and decide she likes the former better."

"It's not like she can ever go back to the former," Jean interrupted, earning a brief annoyed glare from Bianchi.

"True. But we must keep in mind that she's a child, she probably won't care and will attempt something rash and dangerous," the doctor explained.

"If that's the case then maybe it's time you up her conditioning, Jose," Jean suggested.

"I disagree," Jose responded. He made sure to mind his tone around Lorenzo, "Henrietta chose not to kill herself. I think she can get back on her feet without increasing her dosages."

"Like Jose told you earlier, chief, she still has emotional ties here. That's our saving grace," Bianchi added.

"Let's hope those ties hold," Lorenzo commented worriedly.

* * *

><p>As soon as she closed the door to her room, Angelica immediately ran to her bed and buried her face in her pillow. Sniffing could be heard as tears leaked onto her pillow.<p>

Marco told her she wasn't going back to work for a while. She insisted that she was fine, but then he got angry and yelled at her. Angelica had been shot before, but nothing stung worse than Marco being upset with her.

A knock at her door stirred her from her fit of self-pity. She quickly wiped her tears away and made for the door, using what little strength she had to compose herself before she answered. If it was Marco, it wouldn't help if he saw her in such a state. Her visitor wasn't who she expected though.

"Nice to see you up and about, Angelica," Triela greeted with a smile after Angelica opened the door.

"Oh. Hello, Triela," Angelica said back with a small smile of her own. She couldn't help but be disappointed that it wasn't Marco. This was replaced with curiosity when she noticed something odd. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, why?" Triela asked back.

"You look really pale and you're swaying a bit," Angelica answered. Triela looked down briefly and chuckled before looking back up.

"Yeah, it's just that time of the month. I'm fine for now though!" Triela assured. Angelica decided to let it go, exhaustion from earlier outweighed her curiosity. She stepped aside and let her taller guest in.

Thoughts of a furious Marco encroached Angelica's mind as Triela walked passed her. His voiced echoed in her ears, berating and insulting her very existence. A harsh contraction formed in her chest and expanded throughout her body as the insults grew more venomous and deafening. He was right, she was useless. A worthless piece of….

"Angelica?"

She gasped and turned to face her addresser; Triela. The pigtailed cyborg stared at her with obvious concern. An awkward silence dictated the room now, making Angelica fidget under Triela's worrisome gaze. Before she could say anything, Angelica felt something moist run down her cheek. She didn't need to touch it to know what it was, and that she'd been found out.

Angelica gave up her composed pretense and hung her head. More tears would have followed had Triela not cleared her throat to get her attention. Looking back up, Angelica noticed Triela sitting on her bed with a sympathetic smile. Her guest patted a spot on the bed next to her, gesturing for her to join her. Angelica did so with hesitation, she wasn't in a talking mood but Triela rarely let anything go unaddressed. The two cybernetic girls just sat there for a few silent seconds before Triela spoke.

"Marco?" Triela asked. Angelica simply nodded. A few more seconds passed before Triela gently grabbed Angelica's shoulder and pulled her closer, letting her head rest on her shoulder. Angelica was thankful for this, her strength had been waning ever since Marco chastised her and she didn't know how much longer she could hold herself up.

"It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known that would happen," Triela assured her. Angelica had no idea what her guest was talking about, but could guess it was whatever landed her in the infirmary in the first place.

"Why did he yell at me if it's not my fault?" Angelica asked as more silent tears flowed. Her voice cracked as if on the verge of crying. In truth, she had no energy to spare for such a strenuous action.

"Did you talk back at him?" Triela asked.

"…No."

"Angelica…"

"All I did was tell him I'm fine!"

"You know he gets frustrated when you're hurt. You should give him some space when that happens," Triela advised.

More silence followed. Angelica leaned more on Triela as she grew weaker and weaker over time. It became increasingly difficult to focus on her own thoughts as her eyelids grew heavy.

"Hey, want a reason to get out of this room?" Triela asked. Angelica's eyes snapped open and she looked up at her visitor expectantly. "Hilshire's taking me to visit Henrietta later. Want to come with?"

"Won't I need Marco's permission?" Angelica inquired.

"I get the feeling he'll say yes," Triela answered with a smile.

"It would be nice to get out of here," Angelica thought out loud, "But could you ask Marco for me?"

"Not a problem."

"Thanks," Angelica tried to smile but was interrupted by a yawn, "I think I'll take a nap first, though."

"Yeah, you've been sounding pretty worn out since I got here," Triela commented, making Angelica mentally beat herself. She wished she could more easily present herself as healthy. Triela stood up from the bed and made for the door, Angelica almost fell over from no longer having support. Before leaving, the pigtailed cyborg turned to face her. "I'll see you soon!"

Angelica waved back as Triela left. Unable to stay awake anymore, she began pulling back the covers on her bed but was stopped by a peculiar sight; a small drop of water fell on her hand. Perplexed, she touched her face and discovered a moist trail on her cheek, probably left by tears.

Strange, what was there to be sad about?

* * *

><p>"I'm finished, Jose," Henrietta said as she set down her orange juice. Jose inspected her food tray briefly before looking back at his bed ridden cyborg.<p>

"Alright, was that so hard?" he asked rhetorically, making Henrietta frown. She knew he wasn't trying to be mean, but she still didn't like attention being brought to her problems.

"I wasn't hungry," Henrietta protested timidly. Jose adorned that concerned look she both adored and feared.

"The more you keep this up, the longer you stay here," Jose explained, "Is that what you want?" Henrietta lowered her head in shame.

"No," she answered almost inaudibly. Talking had become a painful exercise from how upset she made herself. That changed when Jose placed a finger under her chin and gently lifted her gaze back to his now smiling face.

"I don't mean to give you a hard time," he said, "At least you finished your meal."

Henrietta's cheeks reddened in response to his doting gesture, and she reminded herself how fortunate she was to have such a kind handler. Almost all others were either strict, distant, or even cruel. Hilshire seemed nice though. It still baffled Henrietta as to why Triela would get frustrated with him sometimes.

"Now since that's out of the way, how are you?" Jose asked as he retracted his hand from her, "Feeling better than yesterday?"

"Yeah," Henrietta answered hesitantly.

"Any bad dreams?"

"I don't think I dreamed at all." Henrietta suspected she actually did have a dream but couldn't remember it, for this she was grateful. The "disaster" still fresh in her mind, the mere concept of falling asleep was enough to chill her to the bone. Speaking of disasters, a question she had for Jose that went unanswered popped back in her mind.

"Oh, Jose?" Henrietta spoke up, prompting her handler to look at her expectantly. She hesitated, considering the sensitive nature of her question she would have to be delicate in asking it. Still, her curiosity burned away at her sense of caution.

Before Henrietta could ask, however, a knock at the door interrupted her.

"That must be Hilshire!" Jose exclaimed as he stood up. Henrietta mentally cursed the timing of this visit, she wanted to be alone with Jose when she asked her question. She always wanted to be alone with him when she told him something that bothered her, and figured he'd be more comfortable in such an arrangement as well.

Hilshire made his way in with Triela and, surprisingly, Angelica in tow. Triela gave her a smile and a small hand wave, which Henrietta returned. Angelica on the other hand seemed distracted, only greeting Henrietta with a silent smile after seemingly realizing where she was.

"Glad you could make it," Jose commented.

"It's no problem," Hilshire replied, "Besides, Triela wouldn't let me hear the end of it if I didn't bring her here!" Henrietta noticed Triela look away from the group, her face appeared less colorful than when she last looked. The taller cyborg took a quick breath before putting her smile back on and approaching the bed with Angelica. Jose and Hilshire took seats further away.

"Hey, Henrietta," Triela greeted in her motherly tone.

"Hi," Henrietta said back quietly. Despite being interrupted, she was glad to see Triela. She turned to face Angelica, who was looking back at her but didn't come across as attentive. "Hi, Angelica."

"Mm, hi," Angelica quickly responded after jumping a little. For a few seconds nobody said anything. Henrietta awkwardly looked back and forth between her two guests, wishing that someone would say something. Eventually, Triela cleared her throat and granted her wish.

"So, you feeling alright today?" she asked, making Henrietta look at her.

"Oh, yeah," she answered. Triela crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes in concern. Henrietta hated it when she did that, the guilt it inspired could make a pathological liar confess every falsehood he spewed in his life. She couldn't help but hang her head. "Well, no. It feels like I'll never get out of here."

"Yeah, that's never fun," Angelica commented.

"Jose just wants to make sure you're at your best when you leave," Triela added.

"I know," Henrietta replied, "But it's hard! I almost hurt Rico yesterday, I'm barely eating, and sometimes I can't stop thinking about…you know." She lacked the courage to mention "it" by name. Triela smiled and gently held Henrietta's hands.

"Nobody said this would be easy," she explained, "But think of how you were before, you were completely catatonic and now you're here! That's a good sign, right?" Henrietta smiled weakly, she had a point. She wanted to tell her about how Jose got her to snap out of it, but remembered that it involved something he didn't want her to talk about. However, she was reminded of an earlier incident.

"Angelica?" Henrietta asked as she withdrew her hands from Triela. "I'm sorry for breaking your arm a few days ago, I wasn't thinking." Angelica stared at her bewilderedly before putting on a smile.

"Oh, that's okay," she replied, "But, what are you talking about? You never broke my arm!" Henrietta locked up, she kept opening her mouth to speak but the words evaded her. She had no idea how to respond without upsetting her.

"Ah! I completely forgot!" Triela suddenly interjected with a snap of her fingers, "Rico told me you wanted your hairbrush next time someone visited! I'm sorry."

"That's right, I did tell her that!" Henrietta confirmed, eternally grateful for the subject change. Angelica looked back and forth between the other two cyborgs, looking confused again. Eventually, she shrugged.

Though Henrietta had come to terms with the fate that would befall her and the other cyborgs, it didn't make actually seeing it happen any less unpleasant.

"Well, maybe next time then," Henrietta commented, prompting Triela to nod in agreement.

* * *

><p>Jose pulled Hilshire aside as Triela and Angelica walked down the hall.<p>

"Well, at least that went better than last time," he commented, "Angelica didn't seem to talk much though." He heard a sigh from Hilshire.

"Triela says Marco's been giving her a hard time again," Hilshire explained, "He's been a little worse for wear for a while now."

Jose couldn't help but think back to a conversation he had with Marco. He explained how different Angelica seemed from when she started out, and not in a good way. Her constant problems became too exhausting for Marco to keep up with. Due to what Bianchi said earlier, Jose couldn't help but compare his situation to Marco's.

"Not to sound critical. But do you think Henrietta's going to get her act together just being locked up in there?" Hilshire asked, pulling Jose from his thoughts.

"Of course not. But you heard what happened when Rico visited. It's not entirely safe having her around other people," Jose explained. "On the other hand, Lorenzo wants her back to work soon. I'd like to take her on an outing to ease her back into blending in, but…" He trailed off. A few seconds of silence followed before Hilshire made a suggestion.

"Would you feel better if another fratello went with you?"


End file.
